Meditations for mortals Four weeks to embrace your limitations and make time for what counts

"Your limitations aren't obstacles to a meaningful existence"--they're key to building one, according to this refreshing guide from journalist Burkeman (Four Thousand Weeks). He contends that once readers accept that "doing it all" is impossible, they can identify the handful of priorities that deserve their time and attention and better enjoy engaging in them. Laying out 28 brief lessons to be practiced over four weeks, Burkeman suggests swapping a daily to-do list for a "done list"--cataloging the tasks one has completed each day--to improve self-satisfaction; treating a to-read pile as an option rather than an obligation; and breaking tasks into "small, clearly defined packages of work" to be completed daily. Burkeman's light touch when discussing such modern ills as doomscrolling, coupled with the smart balance he strikes between motivation and reassurance, make this an especially useful resource for burnt-out readers who want to ease their minds without upending their lives. Amid a sea of efficiency-focused, do-it-all self-help guides, this is a welcome alternative. (Oct.)

An exploration of ways to escape the trap of perfectionism and step into a happier, more productive life. Much in the modern world, from climate change to global social and political upheaval, is beyond human control, yet people continue to live according to the "fatally misguided idea that reality can and should be made ever more controllable," writes British journalist and nonfiction author Burkeman. The resulting malaise has contributed to widespread feelings of burnout and anxiety. He posits that the way forward lies in accepting what he calls imperfectionism, the idea that humans are finite creatures with limited agency. To work toward that end, Burkeman offers 28 Zen-inflected essays on the art of living and staying sane in a messy world; he suggests reading them one at a time over four weeks. He begins by offering liberating insights into letting go of to-do lists and the exhaustion that comes from trying to absorb too much information and care about everything that happens in the world. Only then can individuals finally begin to focus on not only navigating the inevitable problems and distractions of everyday life but also making time for the self-enlarging "life task" that brings satisfaction rather than immediate gratification. In taking action, however, people must beware of "making things happen, through willpower or effort," which adds unnecessary complications or "feelings of unpleasant exertion." Ambition has its place, but, Burkeman observes, that too must be balanced so that the present--and all the potential it offers for satisfaction--does not get sacrificed to the unknowns of the future: "We have to show up as fully as possible here, in the swim of things as they are." Liberating and humane. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This is a book about how the world opens up once you realise you're never going to sort your life out. It's about how marvellously productive you become when you give up the grim-faced quest to make yourself more and more productive; and how much easier it gets to do bold and important things once you accept that you'll never get around to more than a handful of them (and that, strictly speaking, you don't absolutely need to do any of them at all). It's about how absorbing, even magical, life becomes when you accept how fleeting and unpredictable it is; how much less isolating it feels to stop hiding your flaws and failures from others; and how liberating it can be to understand that your greatest difficulties in life might never befully resolved. In short: it's about what changes once you grasp that life as a limited human being--in an era of infinite tasks and opportunities, facing an unknowable future, alongside other humans who stubbornly insist on having their own personalities--isn't a problem you've got to try to solve. The twenty-eight chapters in this book are intended as a guide to a different way of taking action in the world, which I call 'imperfectionism' --a freeing and energising outlook based on the conviction that your limitations aren't obstacles to a meaningful existence, which you must spend your days struggling to overcome, en route to some imaginary point when you'll finally get to feel fulfilled. On the contrary, accepting them, stepping more fully into them, is precisely how you build a saner, freer, more accomplished, socially connected and enchantment-filled life--and never more so than at this volatile and anxiety-inducing moment in history. If you decide to read this book at the suggested pace of one chapter per day or thereabouts, my hope is that it will function as a four-week 'retreat of the mind' in the midst of daily life--a way of actually living this philosophy here and now, and doing more of what matters to you as a result, instead of mentally filing it away as yet another system you might try to implement one day, should you ever get a moment to spare. After all, as we'll see, one main tenet of imperfectionism is that the day is never coming when all the other stuff will be 'out of the way', so you can turn at last to building a life of meaning and accomplishment that hums with vitality. For finite humans, the time for that has to be now. So I sincerely hope you find this book useful. To be completely honest with you, though, I wrote it for myself. Excerpted from Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.