Four Thousand Weeks

Oliver Burkeman takes that grim arithmetic as a starting point and, remarkably, turns it into liberation. Four Thousand Weeks is an anti-productivity book, arguing that our frantic efforts to optimize time and 'get on top of everything' are doomed, because finitude is the human condition, not a problem to be solved.

Drawing on philosophy from the Stoics to Heidegger, Burkeman makes the case for embracing limitation - choosing what to neglect, accepting that you cannot do it all, and being present for the finite life you actually have. intendle recommends it as a wise, funny corrective to hustle culture and the tyranny of the to-do list. A New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller and a TIME must-read of 2021, it reframes time management as a question of meaning.