Self-Help Review: Four Thousand Weeks

Summary: I found this relatable and helpful, but it was sometimes repetitive and didn’t do enough to address systemic issues.

The big idea of this time management book is given away by the subtitle – “time management for mortals”. By pointing out that we each might only get 4,000 weeks (~77 years), the author highlights the importance of taking the long view when doing time management. Is what we really want out of time management a better way to get through more e-mails in a day? The author suggests that instead we should focus on doing the things we most care about first.

I loved the concept of this book. I’ve been getting more involved in volunteer work and my local community. I’m definitely doing this in a search for meaning in my life. I’veo put this off for years, thinking that eventually I’d have more time for it. I’m really glad I’m doing it now instead of waiting. So I’m very on board with the message of this book. The author gave some practical advice that I think will help me put more of my focus on things that matter most to me. Many of the short chapters had one clear, specific suggestion. A final chapter listing 10 actions to take was another great resource.  This book was also just enjoyable to read. I think anyone with a job that allows them a reasonable amount of control over their own time is likely to relate to the author. I found it comforting to read about someone else engaging in the same search for meaning that I am. It was even more comforting because he provided a manageable framework to use when pursuing this goal.

There were a few little things that irritated me about this book. Sometimes the author blames individual failings for challenges that I think are driven by systemic problems with work and compensation in the US. He has a bit more reverence for the pastoral or even medieval life and a greater dislike for technology than I can get on board with. For example, he claims that medieval peasants never felt like they had too much to do in a day, which I find extremely unlikely. The book also gets repetitive toward the end. The second section repeated a lot of concepts from the first. I enjoyed reading this book, but I think the important concepts could have been conveyed in a book half its length.

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