Book Review – Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

Hello there, and welcome back to my bookblog. It has been a while, but it is good to be back and I look forward to bringing you more of my book reviews and bookish thoughts, starting with my review of Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It by Oliver Burkeman.

About the Author

Oliver Burkeman is a journalist who previously wrote a weekly psychology column for the Guardian titled ‘This Column Will Change Your Life’. Four Thousand Weeks is the third and most recent of Oliver Burkeman’s books, the other two being:

• HELP!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done; and
• The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking

What is the Book About?

This is, as the title suggests, a book about time and how to use it. But, the first point to be clear about is that this is not a productivity self-help book. This book will not teach you how to cram more into every available second, turning you into a productivity master who is able to master every skill while maintaining absolute calmness. Quite the opposite.

Instead, this book will teach you to accept, and even embrace, the truth that our time and what we can do in that time is finite, and you simply will not, and can not, get everything you want done. Having accepted this, you will then be in a position to make a decision on what to do with your time, and the book will then guide you through how to make that decision.

What did I think?

Four Thousand Weeks was a pleasure to read, and it is one of the non-fiction books that I most connected with.

I have read several books on productivity, watched and listened to numerous productivity gurus, and created an endless number of systems that would allow me to carry out an infinite number of tasks and activities every day. But something always felt off, like there was something missing from these books and videos. Oliver Burkeman touches on the issues with some of the most well-known productivity guides and the hard truths that they miss out that we should accept if we are to make the most of our time.

And though some of these hard truths can be difficult to face, let alone to accept, there is a sense of having been freed, of relief, once you do so. As Burkeman puts it, once you accept that time is finite and you can’t possibly get everything done, you can stop berating yourself for not having achieved everything (which you have now accepted was impossible in the first place) and start making decisions and prioritising things safe in this knowledge.

I would, therefore, recommend this book to anyone who, like me, has often felt pressure to get as much done as possible in a limited amount of time.

Conclusion

As you can tell, I really enjoyed reading this book – A book about how we can free ourselves by, counter-intuitively, accepting our limitations.

Thank you for taking the time to read my first review of the year. I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to bringing you more posts throughout the year.

But for now, I wish you many happy readings and cups of tea/coffee! 🙂

TBT