Putting off tackling procrastination.

The irony is not lost on me.

I have been putting off reading Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It by Oliver Burkeman for months. A book exploring the challenges of managing time, it has sat on my bedside table, sat on the arm of the sofa; it has even come away with me on holiday. And yet the spine remains resolutely unbroken.

So committed was I to reading this book and learning from it that I discovered that I’d accidentally ordered two copies and another landed through the postbox earlier this week.

In his book, Burkeman explores how best to use our all-too-brief time (spoiler alert: the clue is in the title) on this planet. I (think I) want to make sure that I’m using the time I have available to me in the best way possible. This book represents a hope that I will be galvanised into taking a clear-eyed look at how I spend my time, regain focus, and manage the myriad distractions and attention-sappers that leech time from each day.

But I’m also conscious that this will require a lot of effort from me, and a different orientation to the choices I make. I’m not quite sure I have the energy at the moment to rise to this challenge. And so, not one but two copies of Four Thousand Weeks now sit on the bookshelf, spines unbroken.

I share with many of the people I coach a sense of ‘stuckness’ about something that is important to me: a deep and uncomfortable realisation that I’m going to have to make a change in my life, and that it will mean challenging patterns that are easy and soothing. I may have to get some coaching on this myself…

• You can read an edited excerpt of the book here

• Burkeman is a wise and entertaining writer - his book The Antidote is a wonderful exploration of how to lead a flourishing life.