On "Four Thousand Weeks"

Reflections on "Four Thousand Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman, subtitled "Time management for mortals".

The basic message is that many texts on time management set targets which mortals cannot hope to achieve and result in endless stress and disappointment. He discusses, from multiple perspectives, the paradox that we can achieve more by trying to do less. His arguments are backed by an endless stream of interesting anecdotes and learned references. 

 We should, he argues, learn to value our life for its own sake, rather than as a limited amount of time in which some entity which we identify as our "self" seeks to make a lasting impression on the rest of the Universe. 

 Cutting his message down, it may appear contradictory to propose that we can achieve more by seeking to do less and that whatever we achieve is insignificant, but there is a consistent message that we can avoid frustration and a sense of drift by taking a step or ten back from the target driven mentality of the modern world.

 There is some interesting commentary on the lessons of the COVID pandemic and lockdown, with reference to "The Great Pause" by   Julio Vincent Gambuto.

"4000 weeks" is an excellent and thought provoking book. While Gambuto and many, many others like him blame a "them" for luring us into a cycle of reckless consumption and destruction, Burkeman recognises are own unfortunate tendency to dig ourselves into psychological traps and the need for collective action to counteract these human weaknesses, such as the need for prescribed "weekends" when many of us are off work and we can "spontaneously" meet each other in a variety of ways.