Oliver Burkeman
British author | 'Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals'
About
Oliver Burkeman wrote the weekly column "This Column Will Change Your Life" for The Guardian before publishing "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" in 2021. His book challenges conventional productivity wisdom, exploring the philosophy and psychology behind how we think about time and happiness. Burkeman's work examines why traditional time management fails and offers a different approach to living with our finite human limitations.
Talks1
TED Talks Daily Book Club: Meditations for Mortals
How can you make your life meaningful with the finite amount of time you have? In this TED Talks Daily Book Club interview, host Elise Hu speaks with Oliver Burkeman on his book "Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts." He explores his philosophy of "imperfectionism" and shows how choosing to let go can help you feel more in control. The TED Talks Daily Book Club series features TED speakers discussing their latest books and exploring their ideas beyond the page. Stay tuned to our feed for more interviews like this one and for special live book club events open exclusively to TED Members. (Recorded at A TED Original Podcast on November 4, 2025) Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters Follow TED! X: https://www.twitter.com/TEDTalks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted Facebook: https://facebook.com/TED LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ted-conferences TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedtoks The TED Talks channel features talks, performances and original series from the world's leading thinkers and doers. Subscribe to our channel for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit https://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Watch more: https://go.ted.com/oliverburkeman https://youtu.be/ZYIUnmrkmRI TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film
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