The title of this book indicates the estimated time that a person would have to live their life – your lifespan (on average) can be expected to last only about four thousand weeks. So how do we finish everything we want to get done during this relatively short timeframe?
The author’s answer is that we don’t. It’s impossible. No matter how many life hacks and email tricks and todo lists you make, it ain’t gonna happen, so learn to let go of the stuff clogging up your daily productivity (which is probably bullshit anyway) and instead focus mindfully on the things that are important to you.
This is my own brief summary and the book goes into far more detail with plenty of information from various scholars and thinkers to explain the author’s ideas. There is a lot here about avoiding the distractions of media (both social and traditional), consumerism, and boredom.
I enjoy reading books that change the way your mental models are set up, and maybe make you rethink some things. This book is tailored towards people that are caught up in the rat race and are perhaps overwhelmed with things they are trying to finish off so that they can finally relax and achieve success. Maybe this book can help those people to rethink things and have a more peaceful and fulfilling life – it is a noble thing to write a book to help people do that.
Most of this book had information and ideas that I’ve already come across, but there were some interesting points on focus and attention, and where exactly they should be. I also was interested in what they had to say about the false productivity gains of multitasking. But the final message came across clearly and it is one I agree with – in the grand view of history few people will know or care about how you lived your life, so you have the right to live it the way that you want to live it. This book aims to give people the chance to do that.
Next I’m reading a history book called The Anarchy: The East India Tea Company, by William Dalrymple.
