Four Thousand Weeks : : Time Management for Mortals

Introduction: In the long run, we're all dead -- Part I: Choosing to choose. The limit-embracing life ; The efficiency trap ; Facing finitude ; Becoming a better procrastinator ; The watermelon problem ; The intimate interrupter -- Part II: Beyond control. We never really have time ; You are here ; Rediscovering the past ; The impatience spiral ; Staying on the bus ; The loneliness of the digital nomad ; Cosmic insignificance therapy ; The human disease -- Afterword: Beyond hope -- Appendix: Ten tools for embracing your finitude.
"A lively philosophical guide to time and time management, setting aside superficial efficiency solutions in favor of reckoning with and finding joy in the finitude of human life"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Compelling! submitted by lizgiessner on July 15, 2023, 12:51pm There were times that I couldn't put this book down so interesting is Burkeman's perspective on human nature. There were ideas that didn't make sense to me, such as that we're easily distractable from tasks because we don't accept our mortality. But this is a well-researched (13 pages of referenced philosophers, essayists, and others), compelling book that might bring readers an entirely new outlook on life.

Great book, right up to the end submitted by SurfGrape on June 17, 2024, 10:27am This book started off well. Burkeman explains why "time management" is a myth. We all have limited time on this Earth, and we're all overwhelmed, so it's better to focus on priorities rather than waste this short, precious life. However, in the final two chapters he does a 180 and tries to argue that because life is so short, nothing we do makes much of a difference at all, so why try? This was a poor way to end an otherwise wonderful book.