Four Thousand Weeks

Time Management for Mortals

Hardcover, 224 pages

Published July 13, 2021 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN:
978-0-374-15912-2
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4 stars (52 reviews)

The average human lifespan is absurdly, outrageously, insultingly brief: if you live to 80, you have about four thousand weeks on earth. How should we use them best?

Of course, nobody needs telling that there isn't enough time. We're obsessed by our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction, and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Yet we rarely make the conscious connection that these problems only trouble us in the first place thanks to the ultimate time-management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of this problem. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with 'getting everything done,' it introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life, showing how the unhelpful ways we've come to think about time aren't inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we've made, as individuals and …

9 editions

Review of 'Four Thousand Weeks' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

As 'books' these days, he tries to blame nearly everything related to depression and one's search for meaning for today's way of leaving.
He tells us to know we are going to die soon, get rid of the aspirations as we won't achieve the majority of them and do less for ourselves exclusively as there won't be anyone to judge that we failed.
In his opinion, this enlightenment, such a great resignation and such a terrible settlement for less is going to make us happy.

He is trying to cover everything without going to deep.
He basically touches every bit of our modern day lives without looking under the hood hence the book seem to be very shallow and lacks the 'juice'.

Last thing, Oliver.
There is this one thing you failed to mentioned in the book, something I almost consider a crime.
Consciously you failed to mention the regret …

A good alternative to traditional time management books

3 stars

I read this as the description really spoke to my todo-list overwhelm and feeling that everything needed to be done.

This book reminds you of the obvious - we're all finite, todo lists are always infinite. You were never going to get everything done anyway, so stop worrying about it. Instead, prioritise ruthlessly, choose things that you're willing to let go or fail at, and value the "now" over the unreachable future that you think will exist when you finish your todo list.

Overall, the book does what it sets out to achieve fairly well. Unfortunately it has a narrowly neurotypical view and doesn't really give space for those of us who struggle to let things go and often fall into absolutist thinking about their todo list. It also makes assumptions that everyone wants similiar things in a few places, especially when it talks about relationships - we don't all …

Review of 'Four Thousand Weeks' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Nothing extra-ordinary in terms of content, but special when you think of the book as a compilation of useful frameworks to think about time.

Alas, I stumbled upon Four Thousand Weeks at such a point in my life where I’ve already been a productivity addict for so long that it’s impossible for me to make a fresh start. The central theme of the book - that you won’t ever get to do all the things you’ve set out to do so you should consciously choose and be happy about your choice - is such an aphoristic statement that no matter how you spin it, it always feels bland.

Having said that, the self-help ocean that this book is a part of, is filled with heaps of garbage books, so stumbling upon this one is like finding a needle in a haystack. Few ways of thinking about time and choices that …

Review of 'Four Thousand Weeks' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was surprisingly good. It isn't about what the title makes it to be. I feel like the book could be summed up in a few lines or pages, but I can't think of a way to write a summary which will have any impact at all, or not sound like generic wise sounding advice. So, at least in that way, the summary of the book will be like a zen koan. You need to have thought about it, meditated on it, and then finally reached an understanding of its true meaning (at least that's how I assume koans work).

The author talks about things that everyone must already have had thoughts about, but he has a clarity of thought that makes it feel like an enjoyable and deep conversation. The book is also surprisingly radical; it does not really promote 'time management tips / tricks / techniques' that will …

Review of 'Four Thousand Weeks' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

As a philosophical read about our perception of time and how we spend it, this is a very good book. As a practical read for embracing and living with the book's stoic worldview, where time is fleeting and we will do very few things in our life, little guidance is provided. There's good philosophical discussion about time and how we use it. There's good advice on how to prioritize what's important to us. But I guess my main irk was that so many of these passages are drenched in nihilism. I genuinely couldn't tell if the author thought that our more "meaningful" lives amounted to anything worthwhile, or if he felt that life was completely devoid of any meaning. So I recommend this, but be in the right headspace for it.

Burkeman skips the block scheduling and singletasking to remind us that we're all dead soon and should settle on …

Mindblowing read

5 stars

This book challenges many of my views on efficiency, getting things done, distraction, etc. Besides offering a philosophical, historical, and down-to-earth perspective on life, it has solid advice.

About increasing the quality of the time you spend: 1) "cut out time for yourself first", 2) limit work in progress, 3) resist the allure of seductive but not essential priorities.

About patience: 1) develop a taste for having problems (it will always be that we have problems); 2) embrace radical incrementalism (small, constant work VS. big-bang work); 3) originality lies on the far side of unoriginality (the metaphor is those of busses leaving from a train station, that follow the same route initially, only to diverge later).

Five questions to contemplate in order to get closer to living more: 1) Where in your life or your work are you pursuing comfort when what's called for is discomfort? Does this choice diminish …

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