Four Thousand Weeks
By Oliver Burkeman
- Genre
- Psychology, Philosophy & Personal Development
- Publisher
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan)
- Publication year
- 2021
- ISBN
- 9780374159122
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals is a work of nonfiction by the journalist Oliver Burkeman, first published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in August 2021. It reframes time management around the finitude of a human life. A New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, it was a TIME...
The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief: about 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. You will close it with less anxiety and a clearer sense of what matters.