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Oliver Burkeman is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking (2012) and Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done (2011), a collection of columns for the Guardian newspaper. His new book, Four Thousand Weeks, is about making the most of our radically finite lives in a world of impossible demands, relentless distraction and political insanity (and ‘productivity techniques’ that mainly just make everyone feel busier).
In this interview, I spoke with Oliver Burkeman. Oliver is a writer, TED speaker, and the bestselling author of several books, including: “The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking”, and “Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get More Things Done.” This conversation focuses on Oliver’s most recent book: 4,000 Weeks, which is about making the most of the very brief amount of time we all have here on the planet. There have been few books that have impacted me as much as this one, and if you can apply some of Oliver’s insights and perspectives, they have the potential to dramatically transform your relationship with time, into one that feels life-giving, rather than crushing. It’s not just me either. Adam Grant has called it “The Most Important Book Ever Written About Time Management”, while Krista Tippet says: “It invites nothing less than a new relationship with time – and with life itself.” You can learn more about Oliver’s work at www.oliverburkeman.com, follow him on twitter @oliverburkeman, and get a copy of the book here.
This episode is sponsored by our upcoming Day on Burnout Online Conference, taking place on February 27th, 2022.
Burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, affecting 57% of the UK population. If it’s not managed properly, it can lead to feelings of detachment, cynicism, and ineffectiveness – many of the symptoms associated with clinical depression. Recent years have seen sharp increases in those experiencing it, with one survey reporting a 9% increase in 2021, compared with pre-Covid numbers in 2019.
So for this event, we’ve brought together three world-leading experts who will share with you:
— Science-based strategies for working with burnout and compassion fatigue (Françoise Mathieu)
— Dopamine: the secret mechanism underlying almost all addictive behaviour, and how to get it to work for you, rather than against you (Dr Anna Lembke)
— The Productivity Trap: why we have to stop, and how a healthy amount of ‘doing nothing’ can lead to heightened levels of creativity, wellbeing, and a more fulfilling existence (Professor Josh Cohen)
By attending live, you can interact with the speakers in the Q&A sessions, connect with like-minded participants during the conference, get CPD certification and lifetime access to the recordings from the sessions.
You can get a discount on your ticket, if you go to http://bit.ly/burnout-twu, and use the discount code: POD when registering.
