Review of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Oliver Burkeman admits that he used to pursue productivity, much as many other people have. He bought into the life hacks, tips, and techniques that would help him accomplish more and more and more. In fact, those tricks would help him accomplish everything he needed (or wanted) to accomplish, they promised. Of course, they let him down, as the do all of us. The problem, though, isn’t with the techniques themselves; the problem is with the problem they’re trying to solve. The reality is, as Burkeman argues, we will never accomplish all we want because time (and, thus, life) is finite, but we do our best to ignore that reality. One of the main ways we ignore that reality is through pursuing productivity.
What we’re ultimately ignoring, of course, is our mortality. Burkeman, though, argues that the only way to truly be happy in life is by admitting that mortality and coming to grips with the limitations it puts on us. He reminds us that we get, if we’re lucky, four thousand weeks of life, a number which feels painfully and unjustly small. However, he contends that it is that very limitation that gives any meaning to our lives at all. As an Existentialist thinker might argue, it is our choices within that reality that define who we are, or, for Burkeman, how we live meaningful lives.
Oliver Burkeman admits that he used to pursue productivity, much as many other people have. He bought into the life hacks, tips, and techniques that would help him accomplish more and more and more. In fact, those tricks would help him accomplish everything he needed (or wanted) to accomplish, they promised. Of course, they let him down, as the do all of us. The problem, though, isn’t with the techniques themselves; the problem is with the problem they’re trying to solve. The reality is, as Burkeman argues, we will never accomplish all we want because time (and, thus, life) is finite, but we do our best to ignore that reality. One of the main ways we ignore that reality is through pursuing productivity.
What we’re ultimately ignoring, of course, is our mortality. Burkeman, though, argues that the only way to truly be happy in life is by admitting that mortality and coming to grips with the limitations it puts on us. He reminds us that we get, if we’re lucky, four thousand weeks of life, a number which feels painfully and unjustly small. However, he contends that it is that very limitation that gives any meaning to our lives at all. As an Existentialist thinker might argue, it is our choices within that reality that define who we are, or, for Burkeman, how we live meaningful lives.