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  • Four Thousand Weeks

  • Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count.
  • By: Oliver Burkeman
  • Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
  • Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (926 ratings)

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Four Thousand Weeks

By: Oliver Burkeman
Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
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Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The instant Sunday Times best seller.

A Financial Times, Guardian and Observer Book of the Year.

One of the Daily Telegraph's 75 Best Books of 2021.

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

We're obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. 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 4,000 weeks.

Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of the challenge. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with 'getting everything done,' it introduces listeners to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying their limitations.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman sets out to realign our relationship with time - and in doing so, to liberate us from its tyranny.

Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your 4,000 weeks count.

©2021 Oliver Burkeman (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Life is finite. You don't have to fit everything in.... Read this book and wake up to a new way of thinking and living." (Emma Gannon)

"A much-needed reality check on our culture's crazy assumptions around work, productivity and living a meaningful life." (Mark Manson, best-selling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck)

"Comforting, fascinating, engaging, inspiring and useful, actually genuinely useful." (Marian Keyes)

What listeners say about Four Thousand Weeks

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    3 out of 5 stars

Worth the listen however nothing to life-changing

the author definitely has some good takes on life and how to life it and this book might apply more to someone working a 9-5 desk job who is hating their life. essential message is stop living as if you're preparing for some moment in the future when you'll finally have everything organised because it will never come. do the things you want to do now. there is no point worrying about trying to do an impossible workload because it's inherently impossible.

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4 people found this helpful

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Nice mix of philosophy and time

It’s about time philosophy and the meaning of life was presented in a time management book. Age old religions and thinking weaved into the how and why of managing time. Dam sight better than the usual tips to improve email. I love the English sense of humour that Oliver Burkeman uses throughout, but maybe don’t need to reinforce the same point so many times

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Positively life-changing

I read this after quitting my job due to bad workplace behaviour. It really helped me not to rush into finding the first “good” role that I came across and to think deliberately before deciding what I wanted the next chapter of my life to look like. I care about having impact in the world, and after reading this, I have way more balance in mind with how I will approach this. I read 2-3 chapters in one hit every fortnight, and by not rushing through it, it sortof gradually nudged me in to taking on the key concepts of this book, and kept me on track when I got distracted (!) by unhelpful expectations of myself and others. This book has fundamentally changed the way I view the world, and I’m so very glad I read it. If you are having a career, personal or relationship crisis or pause of any kind, read this and really lean into the discomfort of the ideas it lays before you. If you do this, it will positively shift the way you view your life and the world around you. Now — back to my jigsaw puzzle.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Lightbulb moments!

I could feel the tension lifting from my shoulders. This book was a revelation for me. The equivalent of comforting hug, with a 'there, there, everything will be alright".

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Balanced, insightful and meaningful

Other than a few simplistic and misguided comments about early parenting, this is a wonderful book, read in an engaging manner.

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Great book

Very relateable topics that come up often in our modern day society. Great strategies and how to change your mindset.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic book

Would highly recommend this book, interesting approach to time management. Especially the part about doing nothing

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Game changer!

This book is a life changing exploration of how we think about time (and it’s finitude).

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    5 out of 5 stars
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So good

I’ve just finished listening to this book and I plan to re-start it from the beginning, immediately!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A great book

I love it when the narrator is the author and Oliver burkeman reads it well. If you are thinking of getting this book then just do it!

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