Oliver Burkeman

Oliver Burkeman is a best-selling author and keynote speaker. His books include Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals [Penguin Vintage, 2021] and Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, forthcoming from Bodley Head in September 2024; as well as The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking [Penguin Vintage, 2012] and Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done [Penguin Vintage, 2011]. For many years Oliver wrote a popular weekly column on psychology for the Guardian, This Column Will Change Your Life. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Psychologies and New Philosopher. He has a devoted following for his writing on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment. He has also presented a number of programmes for BBC Radio 4, including Oliver Burkeman is Busy, Why Are We So Angry? and Living with the News. Four Thousand Weeks – the title is a reference to the average lifespan of a human – is a New York Times bestseller and named one of the best books of 2021 by the Financial Times, The Times, The Observer, Audible, Time and Barnes & Noble. Here, Oliver explores why the central challenge of time management isn't becoming more efficient, but deciding what to neglect; why, in an accelerating world, patience is a superpower and why, in conditions of limitless choice, burning your bridges beats keeping your options open. In Meditations for Mortals, Oliver offers a four-week ‘retreat of the mind’, offering perspective shifts and practical tools for confronting our limited time, the challenges of prioritization and the lure of distraction, in order to cross the gap from knowing to doing, and take action on what counts.