Four Thousand Weeks

Time Management for Mortals

By: Oliver Burkeman

Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

This program is read by the author.

"Burkeman and his irresistible British accent shifted my paradigm a couple centimeters . . . 'The day will never arrive when you have everything under control,' he calmly whispered in my ear, and I think I believed him." - Vulture

"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect for [Burkeman's] thoughtful message: We can enjoy life more if we appreciate the present moment, stay in touch with our deeper selves, and nurture our connections with people and the natural world." - AudioFile Magazine

"Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal

The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.

Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Listening a second time it's so good.

Revelations in our everyday habits as modern Americans. Brilliant, helpful, already applying his thinking to my days. Not a how-to book at all like the other time management books I've read.

Not what I was expecting, exactly what I needed.

The message I heard was 'Don't go more, do better." Choose to use time in a meaningful way.

Enjoyable book. Filled with wonderful references

Enjoyable book. Filled with wonderful references and good perspectives and advice for living our 4,000 weeks on this earth

Amazing

One of the best books I have read/listened to. These ideas are life changing . Thank you Oliver !

When the other productivity books fail to produce, try this one.

Refreshing blend of the philosophical with the practical to understand how our humanity impacts our ability to “get things done”. Diagnosing the limitations of the purely practical approach, brings us closer to finding a solution that works in our mortal reality as well as just on paper.