Oliver Burkeman
oliverburkeman.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2012
Oliver Burkeman writes about time, productivity, and accepting human limits, and is the author of Four Thousand Weeks and The Imperfectionist newsletter.
What HN saysHN commenters recommend his book Four Thousand Weeks and his 'just do the thing' post to people struggling with procrastination, unfinished projects, and trying to fix themselves.
29HN people shared it
11linked it in comments
23stories submitted
34story points
8 months agolast shared
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Most-shared posts
- 1The Imperfectionist: Too many needles3 people · 4 points · first shared 2021 · 1 comments on HN
- 2Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket3 people · 3 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 3Books3 people · first shared 2023
- 4List one task, do it, cross it out2 people · 5 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 5How to make writing less hard2 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 6The one-sentence solution to overcome procrastination2 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 7Just do the thing2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 8There's no such thing as a fresh start2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 9The three-or-four-hours rule for getting creative work done1 people · 3 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 10You don't need to fight time1 people · 2 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 11Impostor syndrome? It might be a sign you're getting better at your work1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12Three Pages a Day1 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 13What if you get things done? (The Imperfectionist)1 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 14Three or Four Hours1 people · 1 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 15No such thing as a fresh start1 people · 1 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
goddessoflists · 2023-09-17
> I wish I could follow through with projects I’m not getting paid for ;)
This was a problem for me as well, but this post by Oliver Burkeman helped me take action and launch The Metronome : https://www.oliverburkeman.com/justdo
We can't act on every single idea we have, but it's better to bring at least one into the world than have several world-changing ones gather dust in a notebook.
aaronmoodie · 2023-07-08
This is great. For me, visually representing this data always has more impact.
If you’ve not read it, I recommend Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books
And I just listened to this episode of Hidden Brain the other day which has a similar theme. https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-best-years-of-your-life/
ChildOfChaos · 2023-03-04
The great news is you are still very young, you can fumble around for another two years trying to pick yourself up and will still only be thirty.
More practically, it’s simple, just not easy, take one step at a time and then have patience, as long as you are making progress you just need to keep going.
Worth reading:
https://www.oliverburkeman.com/freshstart
https://ckarchive.com/b/xmuph6hrzxwrd
cachius · 2026-03-05
>> If I fix the things that aren’t OK, all will be well. If I improve myself enough, if I only work hard enough, I can finally eliminate my suffering.
>I hate to inform you, but this doesn’t work. I’m also thrilled to inform you that this doesn’t work. You can stop picking up a lot of boulders.
Really reminds me of Oliver Burkeman. Take https://www.oliverburkeman.com/never for a start:
I might be stuck with certain inner disturbances forever [...] It turns out my really big problem was thinking I might one day get rid of all my problems, when the truth is that there's no escaping the mucky, malodorous compost-heap of this reality. Which is OK, actually. Compost is the stuff that helps things grow.
garof · 2024-05-29
Surprised that I haven't seen Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks[0] mentioned. It's kind of a lot but I found it helpful.
I'm personally still working on this problem, and just in the last week found this[1] SLYT video. It was helpful.
[0]: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books [1]: https://youtu.be/-AdXIC44b7Q?si=J5CGx5YJBTqMFSV7
mattmaroon · 2024-05-11
It’s actually comforting to non-believers in a way that religion is to believers. Except it has the benefit of being obviously true.
https://www.oliverburkeman.com/nobigdeal
dmje · 2024-04-05
I liked Oliver Burkeman on this with his “too many needles” idea [0].
Personally, I hoard a bunch of stuff using Omnivore and then on a semi regular basis I go through that and just throw away 90% of it. I find this two stage process useful: stage 1 is gathering All The Things, stage 2 is after a while sifting and keeping only the stuff I’m really interested in. Ultimately though, I try nowadays to apply a Buddhist angle on it: I hold all this stuff very lightly, knowing that it’s as close to infinite as makes no difference, and letting it go!
[0] https://www.oliverburkeman.com/river
balaji1 · 2023-06-10
I noticed the phrase "accelerating world" on https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books. Nice wording. A lot of people feel it.
hannob · 2022-12-15
I mean you won't find the ultimate answer, but I found the writings of Oliver Burkeman on these kinds of topics interesting. He's a bit of an anti-productivity guru (aka recognizing that these are important issues, but being highly critical about the usual "read my book and everything will be fine" type of people).
See e.g. things like this:
https://www.oliverburkeman.com/onething
https://ckarchive.com/b/xmuph6hrzxwrd
mattdotc · 2015-06-09
Not to dismiss what you're saying, but in this case the 'client button' is for tricking the annoying client into thinking you're making a change when you've really done nothing.
This is kind of the same idea as throwing in a duck[1] or hairy arms[2]:
1: http://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/
2: http://www.oliverburkeman.com/blog/posts/the-theory-of-the-hairy-arm-t…
bitsoda · 2013-03-15
"Don't wait until you feel like doing something"
That's the one sentence solution described by Oliver Burkeman that has remained in my Pinboard.
http://www.oliverburkeman.com/blog/posts/the-one-sentence-solution-to-…
This article describes procrastination as two demons you need to conquer: the first is doing the actual task, while the second is to get into a certain state of mind or mood that makes you want to do the task. By setting up two barriers to getting the task done, you're likely to procrastinate further.
The "just do it" mantra jettisons the "I need to feel like doing the task before I do the task" roadblock. What you'll find is that once you actually start working on your task, you're more likely to continue along merrily, wondering why you even resisted starting in the first place. This almost always works for me. Give it a shot.