CULTURE EDITION IN PURSUIT OF A MEANINGFUL LIFE Described as a ‘four-week
retreat of the mind’, we speak with best-selling author Oliver Burkeman about his new book, Meditations for Mortals, ahead of his talk at the University Arms Hotel on 17 September Words P hoebe Harper Portrait Nina Subin F or Oliver Burkeman, the genesis of his latest book – Meditations for Mortals, Four Weeks to Embrace your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts – came from the all- too-familiar feeling of reading plenty of material about how to lead a more productive life, but then spending years trying to actually put those systems into practice. “I found that, in almost all cases, these books just encouraged my perfectionistic tendencies towards trying to get everything done, which just leads to more busyness and procrastination. Or that they subtly led me to believe that the really meaningful part of life would begin when I finally ‘got on top of everything’.” So, in the face of these ever-shifting goalposts, he decided to write a book about actually getting around to the meaningful things in life: “here and now, in our limited and imperfect lives.” Sign of the times Many know Oliver as the internationally best-selling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – an essential guide and probing look at our perception of time and how we can abuse it during our limited lifespans. Rather like Four Thousand Weeks , this newest work of nonfiction is very much the result of the age we live in – a book for modern times, made for modern readers. “I think we’re living through especially volatile, anxiety-inducing and distracting times, which exacerbate the challenge of building a meaningful life in two ways,” he observes. “Firstly, many of us feel we ought to be doing more about the climate crisis, threats to democracy – and so on. So we’ve got those items on the to-do
TIME PRESSURE For Oliver, making the most of the time we have is about being kind to ourselves
12 SEPTEMBER 2024 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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