'Full of wisdom and comfort ... a really important book' CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN, author of Ultra-Processed People

How can we embrace our non-negotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there's always too much to do? What if purposeful productivity were often about letting things happen, not making them happen?

Reflecting on ideas drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores practical tools and shifts in perspective. The result is a bracing challenge to much familiar advice, and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.

Meditations for Mortals takes us on a liberating journey towards a more meaningful life - one that begins not with fantasies of the ideal existence, but with the reality in which we actually find ourselves.

Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, it offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls 'imperfectionism'.

To be read either as a four-week 'retreat of the mind' or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life in 2025.

In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.

'Thoughtful, level-headed, and useful ... a book to meditate upon' THE TIMES

'Oliver Burkeman has a way of giving you the most unexpected productivity advice exactly when you need it' MARK MANSON, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

** A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2024 **

About the Author

Oliver Burkeman is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Four Thousand Weeks and The Antidote, and for many years wrote a popular weekly column on psychology for the Guardian, 'This Column Will Change Your Life'. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Psychologies and New Philosopher.

He has a devoted following for his writing on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment.

oliverburkeman.com

Reviews
Thoughtful, level-headed and useful ... a book to meditate upon * The Times *
I'm sceptical about self-help - but a four-week 'mind retreat' changed me ... [Meditations for Mortals] teems with good sense, sensibly dispensed * i *
A bracing read ... I'd bet that his audience will finish it in one sitting ... uplifting * FT *
Illuminating ... Burkeman's insight [is] always clear-eyed and jargon-free ... reassuring and constructive * Guardian *
Full of wise advice on not getting overburdened by work * The Times *
Life-changing * Stylist *
Oliver Burkeman has a way of giving you the most unexpected productivity advice exactly when you need it -- Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Full of wisdom and comfort. I enjoyed every page and read it in a single sitting. This is a really important book about embracing truth and reality -- Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People
A very special book. We should all read this - for the sake of our aching world as well as the state of our souls -- Krista Tippett, author of Becoming Wise
A practical path towards personal transformation. A must-read -- Cal Newport, author of Slow Productivity



Book Information
ISBN 9781847927620
Author Oliver Burkeman
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint The Bodley Head Ltd
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 214g
Dimensions(mm) 217mm * 136mm * 16mm