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Four Thousand Weeks

Time Management for Mortals

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Four Thousand Weeks

Written by: Oliver Burkeman
Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
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About this listen

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“This is the most important book ever written about time management.”
—Adam Grant, #1
New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of WorkLife

What if you stopped trying to do everything, so that you could finally get around to what counts?

Nobody needs to be told there isn’t enough time. Whether we’re starting our own business, or trying to write a novel during our lunch break, or staring down a pile of deadlines as we’re planning a vacation, we’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and ceaseless struggle against distraction. We’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient and life hacks to optimize our days. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the question of how best to use our ridiculously brief time on the planet, which amounts on average to about 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 obsession with “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing that 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 can do things differently.

Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count.

©2021 Oliver Burkeman (P)2021 Allen Lane
Management & Leadership Mental Health Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Witty Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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What the critics say

2021, Axiom Business Book Award - Personal Finance / Retirement Planning / Investing, Short-listed

“Burkeman’s work could sit comfortably on a shelf next to the books published by Alain de Botton’s School of Life, literary-flavored advice on love, friendship, work and other conundrums. . . . “Four Thousand Weeks” is [also] just good company; it addresses large, even existential, issues with a sense of humor and an even-keeled perspective. I found that reading it — Burkeman might balk at this particular way of describing it — was a good use of my time.” (The New York Times)

“We all know our time is limited. What we don’t know—but what Oliver Burkeman is here to teach us—is that our control over that time is also limited. This profound (and often hilarious) book will prompt you to rethink your worship of efficiency, reject the cult of busyness, and reconfigure your life around what truly matters.” (Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive, and To Sell is Human)

What listeners say about Four Thousand Weeks

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Transformative Perspective on Time

Oliver Burkeman delivers a genre smashing take on time and how one is to manage it throughout their lives. You cannot do it all.

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What we forgot

In our goal to “do”, to be doers and achievers and organizers and planners, we have forgotten how to live. And we sense this is the case. Life can feel like an endless grind with no meaning. The solutions are clear and in front of our noses, if we are ready to be honest with ourselves.

Oliver Burkeman has delivered an important piece of work here. Completely accessible to any reader, yet deeply profound. Philosophical yet immediately practical.

I’m going to re-read immediately.

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Perspective

This book really helps to put put your life into perspective and encourages you to make the most of the weeks you have with what is most important to you. It’s helpful for anyone feeling pulled in a million directions.

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I ordered multiple copies for friends and family

This is not a book about "life hacks", like achieving inbox zero. Instead, Burkeman argues persuasively that our thinking about productivity and efficiency is a trap: the real problem isn’t our limited time, but rather our troublesome ideas about HOW to use time. I loved this audiobook so much that I immediately ordered two print versions to lend to friends and family and I’ve already purchased more audiobook copies as gifts. I’m listening to it for the third time…

Favourite quote: “Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved work life balance, whatever that might be, and you certainly won’t get there by copying the “six things successful people do before 7:00 a.m.” The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about.”

Listen to the podcast review on the Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes on ApplePodcasts, Anchor, Breaker, GooglePodcasts, Overcast, PocketCasts, RadioPublic, and Spotify

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A good storyteller piece on time

I enjoyed how Oliver Burkeman shared a convergent views through various perspectives on the nature and the purpose of time. The balance between storytelling, philosophy and practical tips is good.

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maddening relief

Not what I expected. Yet I appreciated this different and sobering approach to time management.

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Not what I was expecting but smart

I don’t know what I was expecting but this was not what I was expecting but was everything I needed. As a type A, goal oriented, overachiever that has dabbled with burnout this book has allowed me to reorient how I approach the endless lists of expectations and set real boundaries that are meaningful and bring more joy. While the message is not new it bares repeating over and over, particularly in our results driven society that has forgotten how to exist in the moment.

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Phenomenal book.

This book is a game changer for life itself. Thank you for writing it.

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The only time management book you need to read

This is without a doubt, one of the best time management in productivity management books ever read them. It is down to earth, realistic philosophical, with great storytelling and advice to follow.

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Changed my daily routine

Well read and well written. Interesting history tidbits and concepts to mull over for your own life

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