LESSONS TO LIVE BY

WHEN he started writing his column many years ago, he wanted to keep writing until he “discovered the secret of human happiness”.

“Obviously, I never expected to find the secret, but on some level I must’ve known there were questions I needed to confront – about anxiety, commitment-phobia in relationships, control-freakery and building a meaningful life,” says English writer Oliver Burkeman.

Now, he’s decided to call it a day.

“So what did I learn? What follows isn’t intended as an exhaustive summary,” he says. “But these are the principles that surfaced again and again, and that now seem to me most useful for navigating times as baffling and stress-inducing as ours.”

There will always be too much to do – and this realisation is liberating

Today, more than ever, there’s just no