Four thousand weeks - time and how to use it review

Hello all,

If you remember, this was the book from the podcast we listened to in week 2. Most of you quite liked it as I recall. And in an act which was a little out of character for me, I bought the book directly on the back of listening to the interview with the author. 

This weekend I have had more time to relax and read, not by choice of course, but it is what it is!

I enjoyed this book. Time management is something I have a thing about. I’ve always seen it as being useful and I hope, is something I’m efficient at. Heaven challenged me to review this text, so I have!

Burkeman asserts that “nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time”, quite so! I would argue that many of us squander time. But it’s just my opinion. 

The author argues that with our lengthening to-do lists, the struggle against distraction (Erin is looking at that for her project for this module) and the sense that our attentions spans are diminishing. Are you still with me? 😉

The book challenges the reader. How do we best use our ridiculously short time on the planet, which if we live to 80, amounts to just 4.000 weeks.

The author quite rightly suggests we should step away from the notion we should get everything done, but instead, consider why we / society have allowed time to own us. Are we slaves to time? Possibly. 

This book is about realigning our relationships with time. 

For those who want it, there’s even a boxed out list of ten “tools for embracing your finitude” in the appendix – bolded tips to help you live well, now. This book is all the better for not having a great revelation at its core, for not having a single lightbulb moment. Instead, it reads as the natural product of years of thinking about how best to live life. And this, we surely must. 

At the very least reading it would be a good use of one of your four thousand weeks in my opinion! 

Heaven, if you would like to borrow this, you are more than welcome to read it first as you signposted it within the class in week two. 

3.5 out of 5 for me. 

Mark