This was the first book I read in 2023 (and will hopefully not be the last). The basic premise is that we only have four thousand weeks to live, which can only be descried a miniscule amount of time at best in the grand scheme of things. Productivity gurus and self-help books would have you believe you really can fit everything you want to do into these paltry few weeks if only you could master your time. Oliver argues that you can only truly begin living your life once you accept that this is well and truly impossible. This acceptance, in true existentialist fashion, should bolster one’s ability to now do only those things that matter to us rather than wasting time chasing endlessly growing to-do lists.

A core part of this argument is that “work fills the space its given,” or alternatively, that clearing to-do lists and email inboxes only ever causes them to grow even faster. If there’s no end in sight why bother chasing the dragon of an empty list or inbox at all? Instead, Oliver argues we should ruthlessly triage and do only the things that are most meaningful in the moment. I can’t argue that ticking minor things off my to-do list makes me feel good in the same vacuous pat-myself-on-the-back sense that endlessly planning a project does. Instead of sitting with that uncomfortable feeling of working on something hard but ultimately much more rewarding and meaningful, I tend to want to go do sometihng immediately rewarding, whether that’s taking a nap so I can “work” later or more often than not, checking my phone.

Oliver argues that this concept goes even deeper than superficial lists, that we are always putting off truly living in the present so that at some unspecified moment in the future we can begin living our lives. Even if it means accepting with the fact that you won’t get everything done you want, realizing that you have only a finite time on the Earth means that you can start living now and doing the things you actually find important. A lot of the insights in this book reminded me of things I thought about reading The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh, which outlines an approach to living life with mindfulness through constant awareness.

Although the ideas in this book leans more towards philosophy than self-help, Oliver’s writing sometimes falls into the same pitfalls of repeating himself too much and taking long-winded paths to relatively simple arguments. He also relies a bit too much on quotes from others, which while welcome, tend to make the book feel like a collection of haphazard essays rather than a cohesive set of thoughts. Overall I enjoyed reading this book (which is high praise since I’ve since become disillusioned with the entire genre of anything self-help related) and it’s given me a lot to think about. I can’t see myself revisiting the entire thing any time soon but the core ideas are worth rereading and meditating on.