"Meditation for Mortals" by Oliver Burkeman is an interesting book that aims to help you accept the limitations inherent to life, instead of pushing for optimizing for productivity. I first got introduced to him listening to a podcast with Tim Ferriss, and the idea of having only 4,000 weeks in life, the topic of Oliver's earlier book.
This is not a typical productivity book – it challenges the whole idea of always striving to be the best and busiest. The author takes ideas from philosophy and religion to offer a fresh perspective. I especially liked how the book is broken into small chapters, 4 weeks, 28 days with specific concepts like: "You are not paying a productivity debt to justify your existence", or "You do not need to always live for your future self".
Oliver reminds us that life is finite, and maybe you will have some items always pending in your to-do, bucket list, or inbox, even after death. So life should not wait to feel right, till all of it is done.
Radi
February 2025
Dhaka
This is not a typical productivity book – it challenges the whole idea of always striving to be the best and busiest. The author takes ideas from philosophy and religion to offer a fresh perspective. I especially liked how the book is broken into small chapters, 4 weeks, 28 days with specific concepts like: "You are not paying a productivity debt to justify your existence", or "You do not need to always live for your future self".
Oliver reminds us that life is finite, and maybe you will have some items always pending in your to-do, bucket list, or inbox, even after death. So life should not wait to feel right, till all of it is done.
Radi
February 2025
Dhaka
