A couple of weeks ago Radio NZ’s Sunday featured an interview with Oliver Burkeman, author of the newly published, and obviously very popular, Four thousand weeks : time management for mortals. 

Across the library network there are multiple hard copies of this title, plus e-book and audio-book copies.  However there is also a wait list of more than 80 for hard copies.

So let’s consider some alternatives by Burkeman and also on time management.

The antidote : happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking / Burkeman, Oliver
“In an approach that turns decades of self-help advice on its head, Oliver Burkeman explains why positive thinking serves only to make us more miserable, and why ‘getting motivated’ can exacerbate procrastination. And it’s our constant efforts to eliminate the negative that cause us to feel so anxious, insecure and unhappy.” (Catalogue)
Available also as an e-book  

Also available in e-book format is:
Help! how to be slightly happier, slightly more successful and get a bit more done / Burkeman, Oliver
“How do you solve the problem of human happiness? It’s a subject that has occupied some of the greatest philosophers of all time, from Aristotle to Paul McKenna but how do we sort the good ideas from the terrible ones? Over the past few years, Oliver Burkeman has travelled to some of the strangest outposts of the ‘happiness industry’ in an attempt to find out. In Help!, the first collection of his popular Guardian columns, Burkeman resents his findings. It’s a witty and thought-provoking exploration that punctures many of self-help’s most common myths, while also offering clear-headed, practical and of ten counter-intuitive advice on a range of topics from stress, procrastination and insomnia to wealth, laughter, time management and creativity. It doesn’t claim to have solved the problem of human happiness. But it might just bring us one step closer.” (Catalogue)

In audio-book format you can access : 

The power of negative thinking : and how it can be a powerful route to joy, success and satisfaction / Burkeman, Oliver
“Oliver Burkeman explores the virtues of negativity and shows how it can be a surprisingly powerful route to joy, success and satisfaction” (Catalogue)

Why are we so angry? / Burkeman, Oliver
“Why is everyone so angry nowadays, and what is it doing to the world? In the developed world we live in a blessed epoch, a time and a place where life has never been better. Infant mortality has been all but abolished, we have greater personal choice than ever before, we have access to technology that would have been seen as the stuff of science fiction little more than a decade ago. We are safer and wealthier than at any time in human history. So why are we so damn angry about everything? Online, in the street, in the ballot box, anger is the most dominant public emotion of our age. So what are we so angry about, and how is our anger shaping our world? We know the issues that people seem to be angry about – the iniquities of globalisation, diversity, democratic disconnect – but why has anger become our default emotion when responding to the state of the world – and what is anger doing to the world we live in?” (Catalogue)

There’s a wide range of time management material across different formats.

Some of the more recent additions to the library collection are : 

Time : your journey to a slower, richer, more fulfilling way of life / Rowan, Tiddy
“Time is the one thing that is shared by all of humanity, irrespective of wealth, health, race or credo and one of the things that makes us individual is how we choose to spend it. It is one of the commodities over which we have most control, yet it is the asset we value the least. Isn’t it time we took control over how we spend it, while we still can? Time will reward readers of lifestyle quests who seek a better, richer, slower, more fulfilling way of life. For anyone who has ever pondered the paradoxes of time and who is interested in looking at their world from a fresh perspective. Whether you want the encouragement to take time out on a life-scale or simply adjust your life to accommodate a timetable that suits you, this book will have plenty of inspiration, suggestions and tips to help you get the most out of your time.” (Catalogue)

Grip : the art of working smart (and getting to what matters most) / Pastoor, Rick
“We’re all familiar with the signs that things are getting out of hand. The week has barely started and already you’re playing catch-up. At the end of another busy day, your to-do list is longer than it was that morning, your inbox overflowing with other people’s asks. At times like those, no matter how hard we work, it can feel like we’re spinning our wheels. Enter GRIP: The Art of Working Smart, by Dutch entrepreneur and bestselling author Rick Pastoor. GRIP is a fresh and forgiving guide that helps you get things done and free up time for what’s important to you. In the space of one year, Rick went from being a 25-year-old engineering hire to leading a team of 30 at Blendle, the New York Times-backed journalism startup. It was clear he needed a new way of working. And fast. So, Rick started experimenting. He’d keep what worked, ditch what didn’t, and share with coworkers what he learned along the way. The result is GRIP: a flexible collection of tools and insights that helped the team do their best work. Now it can do the same for you. An overnight sensation in Holland, this bestseller has helped thousands find clarity amid the chaos of our demanding times. Now available in English, for everyone who’s looking to reclaim their sanity and add direction to even the most hectic days and week Rick’s friendly, no-nonsense approach makes it easy to dive in. The book’s pick-and-choose structure, complete with cheat sheets for each section, means you can start applying what you need straightaway.” (Catalogue)

 

I didn’t do the thing today / Dore, Madeleine
“Explores the concept of productivity guilt, which includes comparison to others, striving for perfection, and too great expectations, and explains instead how to find value in each day, rather than dwell on what the individual did or didn’t complete.” (Catalogue)

 

Value : what money can’t buy : a handbook for practical hedonism / Bayley, Stephen
“Since the industrial revolution, when everything ran by clockwork, people have understood how important it is to live in the moment. But over time our world has grown increasingly busy, and we’ve lost our ability to truly savour each unique experience and the simple pleasures the world has to offer. Cultural commentator and critic Stephen Bayley seeks to explain what real value is: it’s about taking the time and making the effort to appreciate things, of understanding the permanent charm of modest daily rituals performed with care and feeling. Of caring about appearances and meaning. Of being bold in matters of taste. Of fully understanding the source of lasting pleasure. Of making every encounter with an object or person meaningful. Value is an elegiac account of what’s recently been lost in the digital apocalypse. But also an enthusiastic anticipation of what we can regain in a post-viral, more analogue and more thoughtful world.” (Catalogue)

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence.