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- Feed Preview This column will change your life | The Guardian
Oliver Burkeman's last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life
After more than a decade of writing life-changing advice, I know when to move on. Here’s what else I learned In the very first instalment of my column for the Guardian’s Weekend magazine, a ...
Suffering from brain mush? Here’s how to get things done | Oliver Burkeman
It’s hard to focus on one thing if you’re anxious about multiple tasks, but there’s a way through the fog of distraction In a world of radical inequalities and bitter partisan divides, on...
Can you really help to make a better world by doing nothing? | Oliver Burkeman
Don’t be fooled into overachieving – it’s often more valuable to simply not screw things up ‘Lots of people are feeling unproductive,” the doctor and journalist James Hamblin observed...
Want to really live in the present? Embrace life’s nasty bits, too | Oliver Burkeman
Decay and decline will show up at our door. The trick is being ready to lay down the welcome mat The problem with most books (and articles and podcasts) about “being here now” or “embraci...
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/14/live-in-the-present-embrace-life-nasty-bits
Psychoanalysing Trump isn't a distraction - it helps us stay sane in troubled times | Oliver Burkeman
It helps if you can grasp that the president and his ilk are prey to the same deep-rooted fears as all of us It’s one of the less obnoxious self-help cliches – because it’s true – that ...
Overtaxed by all the unfinished tasks hanging over you? There is a solution | Oliver Burkeman
Trying to store every unwritten report and unfulfilled plan in your brain can be a source of anxiety Don’t you feel it, all the time, these days: that almost physical sense of your brain just...
Do you want it – or do you need it? Here's how you know | Oliver Burkeman
Next time you have the urge to check your phone, or have a second cocktail, remember you might not enjoy it as much as you think As anyone who counts a three-year-old among their acquaintances ...
Want to ditch a bad habit? Then just take it one day at a time | Oliver Burkeman
Willpower doesn’t always work: instead of trying to force it, you might need to change your settings in a more natural way “I’m tired of reading and thinking about HABITS,” Pamela Hobar...
Struggling to achieve perfection? This nautical metaphor might help | Oliver Burkeman
In choppy seas, it’s better to mend the sails than return for a total refit There’s a certain kind of person who dives into each new life-improvement project – decluttering, redecorating, ...
Life in a post-coronavirus world: will it feel so very different? | Oliver Burkeman
The majority of people will drift back to their baseline mood of cheery or curmudgeonly, even after seismic events Has there ever been an easier time to be a futurist? I’m distrustful of the ...
The miracle cure for life's problems? More of what you're already doing | Oliver Burkeman
In difficult times, it’s easy to feel at the mercy of big forces, but we’re more resourceful than we think “What brings you here?” is the question, according to cliche, with which thera...
Don't pretend these aren't dark times: acceptance can be bracing | Oliver Burkeman
You’ll be better able to solve your problems if you stop striving for the impossible The British-born Zen master Roshi Jiyu-Kennett used to say that her philosophy, when it came to teaching ...
How to have fun during lockdown | Oliver Burkeman
Ask yourself Carl Jung’s question: what did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? I hesitate to suggest what anyone else ought to be doing to stay on an even keel, psycholo...
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/may/08/how-to-have-fun-during-lockdown-oliver-burkeman
Is expecting the worst the best way to handle the coronavirus crisis?
During the pandemic, it’s useful to see the role your coping mechanisms play, if only to stop yourself spiralling into anxiety Exactly how terrible are the next months and years going to be? ...
No spare time in lockdown? That's not such a bad thing
Coronavirus is teaching us how to focus on the tasks that matter From the minute we went into lockdown, there’s been a lively discussion, online and elsewhere, about how to fill all our extra...
If something’s out of your control, should you still worry about it? | Oliver Burkeman
There’s a freedom that comes with realising you have more influence over your life than you thought Recently – oh, no particular reason – I’ve found myself returning to the ancient phil...
Got a problem to fix? Don’t even try – it’s better to think afresh
The trick is to stop focusing on problems and ask instead what you want to create We’re often told about the benefits of experiencing failure, but what’s usually meant is grand failure: fla...
Would a society of moral saints be a worse place to live? | Oliver Burkeman
We shouldn’t make every decision about how to use our time, or spend our money, on ethical grounds alone In 2000, in his book Bobos In Paradise , the US commentator David Brooks noticed that ...
Some life problems aren’t especially hard to fix – as long as they're not rushed
From parenting to a broken dishwasher, it’s often enough just to stop, and look, and wait The other day, I fixed a problem with the way our dishwasher connects to the water supply. I’m shar...
Don’t give up on cash yet: there’s a value to seeing what you spend | Oliver Burkeman
Cards and contactless are convenient – but New York is right to fight for cash The other day, New York’s city council voted to make it illegal for businesses to refuse payment in cash. The...