Book Review: Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Here's your permission to set down those tasks that don't actually move the needle.
When I saw this book on the shelf, I audibly gasped. I read Four Thousand Weeks by the same author, so when I saw this I knew it was likly going to be a winner. I wasn't wrong!
So this is a productivity book, but it's also a philisophical book. This was a remarkable read that goes against what most productivity books tell you. It requires you to shift your perspective so that you understand that you're not trying to find more time in the day or tricks to fit more in - but attempts to help you understand that we'll never actually get around to finishing everything on our to- do lists. Burkeman writes, "once you see it's just unavoidably the case that you'll ever get to do a fraction of the things that in an ideal world you might like to do, anxiety subsides, and a new willingness arises to get stuck in to what you actually can do."
This book is written with very short daily chapters, meant to be read and digested and over the course of 4 weeks, but I read through it in a couple of sittings knowing that I’ll be back to it with a highlighter.
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for productivity books and looking for ways to build better habits, so I figured I'd like this book. But this book really was the permission I needed to set down some tasks that didn't honestly matter to me. It helped me figure out which are the important ones, and how I can make small, daily steps to complete them.
"My favorite way of combating the feeling of productivity debt in everyday life is to keep a 'done list,' which you use to create a record not of the tasks you plan to carry out, but of the ones you've completed so far today - which makes it the rare kind of list that's actually supposed to get longer as the day goes on."
My to-do lists have to-do lists and I often get overwhelmed by the size of it. But this book gave me permission to let that shit go. Take off tasks that don't matter, don't move the needle, or have been sitting on the list for months. Take the big tasks and break them down into tiny, approachable tasks. My "learn macrame crafting" task turned into "watch the macrame tutorial I saved in my bookmarks." This task has been on my list for a year. I literally made 3 macrame ornaments since reading this book in the last couple of weeks.
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I really liked this book. This was a 5-star read for me, mostly because it actually shifted my perspective about getting through my to-do list. This was also a quick read, so if you're interested in a reality check on your to-do list, maybe pull this one from your local library. I also have it linked on my Bookshop page (affiliate link). It's a good read for heading into the New Year.
Rating: ★★★★★
Book Summary
- Title: Meditations for Mortals
- Author: Oliver Burkeman
- Genre: Non-Fiction, Self-Help, Psychology, Philosophy
- Who Should Read It? Anybody? Ha. If you're interested in philosophy and understanding how to best use our finite time, you'll love this book.
Synopsis: Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.
How can we embrace our nonnegotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there’s always too much to do? How do we shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”? Reflecting on quotations drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective. The result is a life-enhancing and surprising challenge to much familiar advice―and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.
To be read either as a four-week “retreat of the mind” or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortalswill be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.
