
Four Thousand Weeks
Time Management for Mortals
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Oliver Burkeman
-
By:
-
Oliver Burkeman
About this listen
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
This program is read by the author.
"Burkeman and his irresistible British accent shifted my paradigm a couple centimeters . . . 'The day will never arrive when you have everything under control,' he calmly whispered in my ear, and I think I believed him." - Vulture
"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect for [Burkeman's] thoughtful message: We can enjoy life more if we appreciate the present moment, stay in touch with our deeper selves, and nurture our connections with people and the natural world." - AudioFile Magazine
"Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal
The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.
Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.
Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces listeners to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
©2021 Oliver Burkeman (P)2021 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Die with Zero
- Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
- By: Bill Perkins
- Narrated by: Bill Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Die with Zero presents a startling new and provocative philosophy as well as practical guide on how to get the most out of your money—and out of your life. It's intended for those who place lifelong memorable experiences far ahead of simply making and accumulating money for one's so-called Golden Years. In short, Bill Perkins wants to rescue you from over-saving and under-living. Regardless of your age, Die with Zero will teach you Perkins' plan for optimizing your life, stage by stage, so you're fully engaged and enjoying what you've worked and saved for.
-
-
Nothing extraordinary
- By Agata Tudek on 06-27-23
By: Bill Perkins
-
The Antidote
- Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Antidote is a series of journeys among people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. What they have in common is a hunch about human psychology: that it’s our constant effort to eliminate the negative that causes us to feel so anxious, insecure, and unhappy. And that there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid.
-
-
The Antidote explores the negative path.
- By Bonny on 05-15-14
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
From Strength to Strength
- Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: Arthur C. Brooks
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life. Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach.
-
-
A self-help book for overeducated overachievers
- By 11104 on 02-23-22
By: Arthur C. Brooks
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
Outlive
- The Science and Art of Longevity
- By: Peter Attia MD, Bill Gifford - contributor
- Narrated by: Peter Attia MD
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
-
-
Too Much Filler
- By J. Badaracco on 04-09-23
By: Peter Attia MD, and others
-
Hidden Potential
- The Science of Achieving Greater Things
- By: Adam Grant
- Narrated by: Adam Grant, Maurice Ashley, R. A. Dickey, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.
-
-
Nope
- By Anna OConnor-McClure on 10-27-23
By: Adam Grant
-
Die with Zero
- Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
- By: Bill Perkins
- Narrated by: Bill Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Die with Zero presents a startling new and provocative philosophy as well as practical guide on how to get the most out of your money—and out of your life. It's intended for those who place lifelong memorable experiences far ahead of simply making and accumulating money for one's so-called Golden Years. In short, Bill Perkins wants to rescue you from over-saving and under-living. Regardless of your age, Die with Zero will teach you Perkins' plan for optimizing your life, stage by stage, so you're fully engaged and enjoying what you've worked and saved for.
-
-
Nothing extraordinary
- By Agata Tudek on 06-27-23
By: Bill Perkins
-
The Antidote
- Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Antidote is a series of journeys among people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. What they have in common is a hunch about human psychology: that it’s our constant effort to eliminate the negative that causes us to feel so anxious, insecure, and unhappy. And that there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid.
-
-
The Antidote explores the negative path.
- By Bonny on 05-15-14
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
From Strength to Strength
- Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: Arthur C. Brooks
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life. Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach.
-
-
A self-help book for overeducated overachievers
- By 11104 on 02-23-22
By: Arthur C. Brooks
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
Outlive
- The Science and Art of Longevity
- By: Peter Attia MD, Bill Gifford - contributor
- Narrated by: Peter Attia MD
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
-
-
Too Much Filler
- By J. Badaracco on 04-09-23
By: Peter Attia MD, and others
-
Hidden Potential
- The Science of Achieving Greater Things
- By: Adam Grant
- Narrated by: Adam Grant, Maurice Ashley, R. A. Dickey, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.
-
-
Nope
- By Anna OConnor-McClure on 10-27-23
By: Adam Grant
-
Stillness Is the Key
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness - to be steady while the world spins around you. In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but urgently necessary way of living.
-
-
Needs to be read by a professional voice talent
- By Kindle Customer on 10-08-19
By: Ryan Holiday
-
Essentialism
- The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- By: Greg McKeown
- Narrated by: Greg McKeown
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.
-
-
Paring Down...
- By Molly Helm on 06-08-14
By: Greg McKeown
-
Letters from a Stoic
- Penguin Classics
- By: Seneca, Robin Campbell
- Narrated by: Julian Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
-
-
Returned - Not "Unabridged"
- By Michael Augustus Ennis on 12-03-21
By: Seneca, and others
-
Deep Work
- Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Master one of our economy’s most rare skills and achieve groundbreaking results with this “exciting” audiobook (Daniel H. Pink) from an “exceptional” author (New York Times Book Review). Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship.
-
-
Blocking off time each day to work without distractions will make you more productive
- By M.J. on 11-17-16
By: Cal Newport
-
The Psychology of Money
- Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness
- By: Morgan Housel
- Narrated by: Chris Hill
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Money - investing, personal finance, and business decisions - is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money.
-
-
Could be summarized in one sentence
- By Alex on 05-30-21
By: Morgan Housel
-
The Courage to Be Disliked
- How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness
- By: Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga
- Narrated by: Noah Galvin, Graeme Malcolm, January LaVoy
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Courage to Be Disliked, already an enormous best seller in Asia with more than 3.5 million copies sold, demonstrates how to unlock the power within yourself to be the person you truly want to be. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of 20th-century psychology, The Courage to Be Disliked follows an illuminating conversation between a philosopher and a young man. The philosopher explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts, and the expectations of others.
-
-
Life Changing
- By Sil A. on 09-30-18
By: Ichiro Kishimi, and others
-
Effortless
- Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most
- By: Greg McKeown
- Narrated by: Greg McKeown
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As high achievers, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough. But lately, working hard is more exhausting than ever. And the more depleted we get, the more effort it takes to make progress. Stuck in an endless loop of “Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat”, we’re often working twice as hard to achieve half as much.
-
-
Laced with mistakes!
- By LEE on 04-28-21
By: Greg McKeown
-
Atomic Habits
- An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- By: James Clear
- Narrated by: James Clear
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
-
-
Author went overboard hawking his site
- By CHughes on 06-25-19
By: James Clear
-
So Good They Can't Ignore You
- Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Dave Mallow
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this eye-opening account, Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice. Not only is the cliché flawed - preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work - but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do.
-
-
Become a craftsman
- By A. Yoshida on 07-19-17
By: Cal Newport
-
Same as Ever
- A Guide to What Never Changes
- By: Morgan Housel
- Narrated by: Chris Hill
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every investment plan under the sun is, at best, an informed speculation of what may happen in the future, based on a systematic extrapolation from the known past. Same as Ever reverses the process, inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change. With his usual elan, Morgan Housel presents a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life. Through a sequence of engaging stories and pithy examples, he shows how we can use our newfound grasp of the unchanging to see around corners.
-
-
Beautifully Succinct Summary of Others Original Ideas
- By Mitch on 11-09-23
By: Morgan Housel
-
The Mountain Is You
- Transforming Self-Sabotage into Self-Mastery
- By: Brianna Wiest
- Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Coexisting but conflicting needs create self-sabotaging behaviors. This is why we resist efforts to change, often until they feel completely futile. But by extracting crucial insight from our most damaging habits, building emotional intelligence by better understanding our brains and bodies, releasing past experiences at a cellular level, and learning to act as our highest potential future selves, we can step out of our own way and into our potential.
-
-
Underwelming
- By Erin on 04-20-22
By: Brianna Wiest
-
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
- A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
- By: Mark Manson
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades we've been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F*ck positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let's be honest, shit is f*cked, and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn't sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is - a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is his antidote to the coddling, let's-all-feel-good mind-set that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.
-
-
A book for 20-somethings, but not me
- By Bonny on 09-22-16
By: Mark Manson
Featured Article: The Audible Essentials—The Top 100 Well-Being Listens of All Time
We assembled our editors, scoured listener reviews, polled our most-trusted colleagues, and listened our ears off to bring you this list of 100 must-listen well-being titles on Audible. Whether you’re looking to get organized, stay motivated, find creative inspiration, or relieve stress, these audiobooks and podcasts are packed with insights from self-development and wellness experts to help you take the next step—or the first—in your personal journey.
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Meditations for Mortals
- Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.
-
-
Outstanding everyone needs to learn
- By Lily K. on 02-03-25
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
The Antidote
- Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Antidote is a series of journeys among people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. What they have in common is a hunch about human psychology: that it’s our constant effort to eliminate the negative that causes us to feel so anxious, insecure, and unhappy. And that there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid.
-
-
The Antidote explores the negative path.
- By Bonny on 05-15-14
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Addicted to Busy
- Why Life Has Got So Hectic
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a ritual of the modern workplace - one you've heard and most likely indulged in yourself. It's the call and response we go through when you ask a workmate how they're doing: 'Busy!' 'So busy.' It is pretty obviously a boast disguised as a complaint. And our simultaneously grim and half chuckled reply comes as a kind of congratulation: 'Ha, better than the opposite.' When did we start doing that? As if he didn't have enough to do, Oliver Burkeman explores this epidemic of busyness to reveal that it may not be what it at first seems.
-
-
Superb
- By Vio on 07-14-23
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Why Are We So Angry?
- And What Is It Doing to the World?
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is everyone so angry nowadays, and what is it doing to the world? In the developed world we live in a blessed epoch, a time and a place where life has never been better. Infant mortality has been all but abolished, we have greater personal choice than ever before, we have access to technology that would have been seen as the stuff of science fiction little more than a decade ago. We are safer and wealthier than at any time in human history. So why are we so damn angry about everything?
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Oliver Burkeman: Living with the News
- A BBC Radio 4 Series
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning journalist and author Oliver Burkeman has written three bestselling books on happiness, productivity and time management. Now, in this thought-provoking radio series, he looks at the way we consume and obsess over the news, and why it's so bad for us. Tracing the origins of the modern news cycle, from the first mass production of newspapers in the 19th century to 24-hour rolling news and the alluring interactivity of social media, he shows how we have gone from a scarcity to a superabundance of information.
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Oliver Burkeman’s Inconvenient Truth
- A BBC Radio 4 Series
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bestselling author Oliver Burkeman is well known for his books and radio programmes exploring how we can lead meaningful and productive lives in an age of overwhelm. This time, he brings his keen sense of the ridiculous to bear on our obsession with convenience, looking at the hidden pitfalls of a life of ease. In these five episodes, Oliver attempts to assess the consequences of our reliance on convenience.
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Meditations for Mortals
- Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.
-
-
Outstanding everyone needs to learn
- By Lily K. on 02-03-25
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
The Antidote
- Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Antidote is a series of journeys among people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. What they have in common is a hunch about human psychology: that it’s our constant effort to eliminate the negative that causes us to feel so anxious, insecure, and unhappy. And that there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid.
-
-
The Antidote explores the negative path.
- By Bonny on 05-15-14
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Addicted to Busy
- Why Life Has Got So Hectic
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a ritual of the modern workplace - one you've heard and most likely indulged in yourself. It's the call and response we go through when you ask a workmate how they're doing: 'Busy!' 'So busy.' It is pretty obviously a boast disguised as a complaint. And our simultaneously grim and half chuckled reply comes as a kind of congratulation: 'Ha, better than the opposite.' When did we start doing that? As if he didn't have enough to do, Oliver Burkeman explores this epidemic of busyness to reveal that it may not be what it at first seems.
-
-
Superb
- By Vio on 07-14-23
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Why Are We So Angry?
- And What Is It Doing to the World?
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is everyone so angry nowadays, and what is it doing to the world? In the developed world we live in a blessed epoch, a time and a place where life has never been better. Infant mortality has been all but abolished, we have greater personal choice than ever before, we have access to technology that would have been seen as the stuff of science fiction little more than a decade ago. We are safer and wealthier than at any time in human history. So why are we so damn angry about everything?
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Oliver Burkeman: Living with the News
- A BBC Radio 4 Series
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning journalist and author Oliver Burkeman has written three bestselling books on happiness, productivity and time management. Now, in this thought-provoking radio series, he looks at the way we consume and obsess over the news, and why it's so bad for us. Tracing the origins of the modern news cycle, from the first mass production of newspapers in the 19th century to 24-hour rolling news and the alluring interactivity of social media, he shows how we have gone from a scarcity to a superabundance of information.
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Oliver Burkeman’s Inconvenient Truth
- A BBC Radio 4 Series
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bestselling author Oliver Burkeman is well known for his books and radio programmes exploring how we can lead meaningful and productive lives in an age of overwhelm. This time, he brings his keen sense of the ridiculous to bear on our obsession with convenience, looking at the hidden pitfalls of a life of ease. In these five episodes, Oliver attempts to assess the consequences of our reliance on convenience.
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
The Power of Negative Thinking
- And How It Can Be a Powerful Route to Joy, Success and Satisfaction
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oliver Burkeman explores why people are often more successful - as are organisations, armies and governments - when they focus on reasons they are likely to fail; asks where happiness comes from, and whether we look for it in the wrong places; explores a phenomenon that has come to be called 'fungineering' – attempts to boost happiness in the workplace; and confronts what many of us see as the most negative of all experiences: death.
-
-
Perfect Follow-up to "Addicted to Busy"
- By Andrew Lenards on 07-23-19
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Oliver Burkeman: Epidemics of Modern Life
- A BBC Radio 4 Collection
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman, Various
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist and author Oliver Burkeman is well-known for his long-running Guardian column, 'How to Change Your Life', and has written three best-selling books on happiness, productivity and time management. In this radio collection, he looks at four central ills of modernity—busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Talking to a range of experts, he discovers how these problems became so widespread, and how we can go about tackling them.
-
-
An interesting and nuanced look at four modern problems
- By Nick on 01-22-25
By: Oliver Burkeman
-
Essentialism
- The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- By: Greg McKeown
- Narrated by: Greg McKeown
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.
-
-
Paring Down...
- By Molly Helm on 06-08-14
By: Greg McKeown
-
Slow Productivity
- The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Cal Newport
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?
-
-
Cal Needs Narration Training
- By T. S. Tatum on 04-25-24
By: Cal Newport
-
Let's Build a Company
- A Start-Up Story Minus the Bullshit
- By: Harpreet Grover, Vibhore Goyal
- Narrated by: Anuj Datta
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harpreet Grover and Vibhore Goyal met in college and then spent the next decade of their lives building a company before exiting successfully. One way to tell their story is this: they had a dream, they followed it and, then, through perseverance, they made it come true. But that’s not really the truth. Like everything in life - at least everything worth having - it wasn’t that simple. There was blood, sweat and tears, there was loss of capital, loss of friendship and even a loss of faith along the way.
By: Harpreet Grover, and others
-
15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management
- The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs
- By: Kevin Kruse
- Narrated by: Kevin Kruse
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Kevin Kruse presents the remarkable findings of his study of ultraproductive people. Based on survey research and interviews with billionaires, Olympic athletes, straight-A students, and over 200 entrepreneurs - including Mark Cuban, Kevin Harrington, James Altucher, John Lee Dumas, Pat Flynn, Grant Cardone, and Lewis Howes - Kruse answers the question: What are the secrets to extreme productivity?
-
-
Productivity not time management - great reminder
- By Amazon_Customer on 01-02-16
By: Kevin Kruse
-
Deep Work
- Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Master one of our economy’s most rare skills and achieve groundbreaking results with this “exciting” audiobook (Daniel H. Pink) from an “exceptional” author (New York Times Book Review). Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship.
-
-
Blocking off time each day to work without distractions will make you more productive
- By M.J. on 11-17-16
By: Cal Newport
-
Die with Zero
- Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
- By: Bill Perkins
- Narrated by: Bill Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Die with Zero presents a startling new and provocative philosophy as well as practical guide on how to get the most out of your money—and out of your life. It's intended for those who place lifelong memorable experiences far ahead of simply making and accumulating money for one's so-called Golden Years. In short, Bill Perkins wants to rescue you from over-saving and under-living. Regardless of your age, Die with Zero will teach you Perkins' plan for optimizing your life, stage by stage, so you're fully engaged and enjoying what you've worked and saved for.
-
-
Nothing extraordinary
- By Agata Tudek on 06-27-23
By: Bill Perkins
-
Feel-Good Productivity
- How to Do More of What Matters to You
- By: Ali Abdaal
- Narrated by: Ali Abdaal
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We think that productivity is all about hard work. That the road to success is lined with endless frustration and toil. But what if there’s another way? Dr Ali Abdaal–the world's most-followed productivity expert–has uncovered an easier and happier path to success. Drawing on decades of psychological research, he has found that the secret to productivity and success isn't grind–it's feeling good. If you can make your work feel good, then productivity takes care of itself.
-
-
Good Book, Mid Performance
- By E. A. de Guzman on 12-28-23
By: Ali Abdaal
-
Time Management for the Overwhelmed
- Be More Productive, Less Stressed, and Accomplish More Than You Ever Imagined
- By: Violet Mendez
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Say goodbye to superficial time efficiency strategies and say hello to making the most out of the time on your hands in all aspects of your life — Keep reading to learn more! Are you overwhelmed with your long to-do lists? Are you often stressed out over your constantly full email? Are you struggling to overcome distractions? If you said YES to any of these questions, then get ready to achieve the ultimate work-life balance! We’re often told that there is not enough time in the day for everything we need to do. However, we believe this is a myth. The truth is, there is not enough time ...
-
-
Reflection
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-24
By: Violet Mendez
-
Futureproof
- 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation
- By: Kevin Roose
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What does it mean to be a human in a world that is increasingly built by and for machines? In Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose lays out a hopeful, pragmatic vision of how people can succeed in the machine age by making themselves irreplaceably human. He shares the secrets of people and organizations that have survived technological change, and explains how we can protect our own futures.
-
-
Author is not an expert on the subject
- By Wesley Kotcher on 03-20-21
By: Kevin Roose
-
From Strength to Strength
- Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: Arthur C. Brooks
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life. Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach.
-
-
A self-help book for overeducated overachievers
- By 11104 on 02-23-22
By: Arthur C. Brooks
What listeners say about Four Thousand Weeks
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ann H.
- 08-14-21
Do less for a more fulfilling life
Astute advice for cutting through the many distractions that keep us from doing the things that are truly meaningful to us, our family and friends. Recognize that you cannot do it all regardless of what the myriad time management schemes tell us. Gain peace and satisfaction by choosing to do fewer things more fully and be OK with saying goodbye to all the rest. From a reader who once described her job as a ten thousand-headed monster.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Garret
- 02-07-22
Attention is reality
This book prompted me to stop and write many thoughts and save several clips, probably more than any other. Brilliant book. So timely. I’m recommending to everyone I know.
It’s much deeper than your typical ‘get ahead in business self help.’ In fact, it makes many of them silly by comparison.
Read it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pete
- 12-13-21
Just Different Enough
It's hard to find a new angle in time-management advice. I'm not sure this book is dramatically different, but it was different enough to engage me.
What caught me by surprise is that usually personal development books make audacious promises to help discover who you are or what you are meant to be, but then provide a bunch of oversimplified time-management or organizational tactics. This book appears to be a time-management book, but is really much more philosophical and attempts to challenge the fundamental thinking about how we approach time.
The key takeaway is that people try to do way more than they can ever do in a lifetime but are unwilling to give anything up. We always want to keep our options open, which leads to making only marginal progress on any one of your big goals. Sort of like Cal Newport's Deep Work approach but applied more broadly. And it's a little different from other advice which tells people to eliminate the things that don't make them happy in order to focus on what does, but Burkeman says the list of things that might make us happy is probably too long so there's a need to cut some of those goals as well.
Overall, I didn't feel like he completely wrapped up the philosophical angle, and rambled a bit in the end. And definitely the practical advice felt kind of thrown in. But I got some good stuff out of it and enjoyed the listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Omar
- 02-10-22
Loved the delightful & rich narration
The content truly makes you feel more relaxed with the time you use when approaching your daily life. Though, not in the sense of procrastinating more, instead by valuing the time you get as a gift, making every moment worth and by consequence using it the right way.
Thanks!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jordan
- 03-23-22
get this
loved it. this is now one of my top 3 favorite books. i do not think there will ever be a better time management book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AdamKroll
- 08-25-21
Phenomenal!
As soon as I finished listening to this audio book, I immediately started it over and listened to it again — it’s that good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elle Kay
- 03-25-22
The liberation of insignificance!
What a great contribution to the challenging topic of time / life management and mortality! I enjoyed the narration, the writing style and the deep and digestible contemplation… along with practical advice to top it all off. Highly recommend ✅
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 03-17-22
Essential truths we often forget
If you're a productivity junkie, this book is definitely what you need. I never was one, so most of the ideas presented here seem quite obvious to me, and the fact that some of them are repeated more than once in different words is often annoying.
Still, there are interesting facts and historical allusions in this book thar make it worth listening in any case. Besides, the performance is quite impressive - I loved the accent, the intonation, and the timbre.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer Howard
- 02-21-22
Inspiring!
Who knew it could be so liberating to embrace finitude? This is a refreshing and rejuvenating alternative to much of the time-management/productivity-guru style of advice out there. The author is also an excellent reader.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Melanie
- 02-08-22
A cathartic dose of reality
Overall, listening to this book was a very valuable use of part of my 4,000 weeks. I feel that I gained a lot from it... the ability to relax, the genuine understanding that things take the time that they take, and better skills for using my time in a way that feels good to me and prioritizes what I actually care about.
One thing that I did not enjoy was the author's take that we should "settle" in our relationships. There is some middle ground between settling, and striving for absolute perfection, and I think that that is where we should land rather than either extreme. Maybe this is ultimately what the author was trying to convey, but it wasn't elaborated enough to get beyond sounding like you should just deal with a relationship that is sub par because you can't have what you really want.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!