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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 (2,931 ratings)
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Four Thousand Weeks

By: Oliver Burkeman
Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
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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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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • JC
  • 14-11-21

Hard work

Let me start with the major positive - Oliver Burkeman should be asked to narrate every audio book on Audible. His speaking voice is a real pleasure to listen to!

Sadly the book itself just wasn't for me. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but found myself half way through it with my mind continually wandering off and thinking about other things. I would have expected to have gleamed at least a few take aways from any book by that stage but unfortunately there was nothing. Maybe this is more the kind of book you just listen to and don't taken anything away from, but for that I would prefer to go down the route of fiction.

The author comes across as a highly intelligent individual and maybe I just couldn't grasp where he was trying to lead the listener with his take on our finite lives. From the other reviews its clear that some found a better understanding of what he was saying, however, for me I found it a real slog and ..... well, life's just too short for doing something you don't want to do (ha, maybe I did take something from the book!)

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56 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Clever, thought-provoking and reassuring

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The author reads it really well, which only adds to the well-written and useful content. I also found it reassuring that the way I naturally find myself living my life is probably exactly right for me. I always felt a bit concerned that I could never follow the advice of productivity gurus; now I understand why!

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28 people found this helpful

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Terrific!

As a failed self-improver for around 40 years, this was a strangely enjoyable tour through past pain and confusion, topped off with sound alternative advice to traditional time management at the end. I've 'read' almost 100 audiobooks over the last 18 months or so and this is my new favourite (just pipping "Ten Rules for Talking")

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24 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Lower your expectations because life is short

Lower your expectations because life is short. That’s what the book tells us for more than 6 hours, the way I heard it. It’s true to a certain extend and good to be reminded that we won’t accomplish absolutely everything but not sure we need a whole book about it…Excellent narration by the author and good use of humour.

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24 people found this helpful

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4000 weeks

I enjoyed this short little book. Burkeman makes a lot of good points and turns a few common conceptions of time and productivity on their heads. Just like the stoics, he argues that it is because of our finite time that our days are meaningful at all. Definitely give it a listen!

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Limited amount of information

Limited amount of information in many words. Important topic. Good attempt to send the message.

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17 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well researched and wonderfully delivered

I usually take half an hour to compose a review (that's why I've only ever written a few), carefully wording it, double checking etc. I'm taking Oliver's advice here - "the only [reviews] that count are the ones we actually [write]" and I'm leaving this quick one here. It feels good!

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14 people found this helpful

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A wise, interesting and modern take on time

This book is an exposition on the problem of time as considered by philosophers, mystics, scientists through the ages. However, it also a commentary on modernity, how it perceives time, and how this time impact on the way we perceive and live our lives. It does offer specific and concrete prescriptions to the problem of time. I am not in a position to comment on these yet as I have not implemented them, but they do sound relatively straightforward and promising in terms of possibility of success. The broader points of this book, about how ultimately the shortness of life (ie limited time) is the central problem of this life, and how we will never do most of the things we dream to do, have already been very helpful for me to be more present with my kids and be more relaxed in these busy and stressful holiday times.

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12 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely wonderful

Loved this so much. Thank you Oliver.
I read and listen to loads of books and this one was an absolute stand out. I will definitely return to it. And I will definitely gift it too.

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11 people found this helpful

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One of the most important books you can read

It’s a great perspective on a modern challenge with some genuine, new ideas that could change the way you live. We have been kidding ourselves for too long and it’s time for a re-think x

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8 people found this helpful