Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-169) and index.

Introduction: The imperfect life -- Week One: Being finite. Day One: It's worse than you think -- Day Two: Kayaks and superyachts -- Day Three: You need only face the consequences -- Day Four: Against productivity debt -- Day Five: Too much information -- Day Six: You can't care about everything -- Day Seven: Let the future be the future -- Week Two: Taking action. Day eight: Decision-hunting -- Day Nine: Finish things -- Day Ten: Look for the life task -- Day Eleven: Just go to the shed -- Day Twelve: Rules that serve life -- Day Thirteen: Three hours -- Day Fourteen: Develop a taste for problems -- Week Three: Letting go. Day fifteen: What if this were easy? -- Day Sixteen: The reverse golden rule -- Day Seventeen: Don't stand in generosity's way -- Day Eighteen: Allow other people their problems -- Day Nineteen: A good time or a good story -- Day Twenty: Set a quantity goal -- Day Twenty-one: What's an interruption, anyway? -- Week Four: Showing up. Day Twenty-two: Stop being so kind to future you -- Day Twenty-three: How to start from sanity -- Day Twenty-four: Scruffy hospitality -- Day Twenty-five: You can't hoard life -- Day Twenty-six: Inconceivable -- Day Twenty-seven: C'est fait par du monde -- Day Twenty-eight: What matters -- Epilogue: Imperfectly onward -- Acknowledgments -- Further reading -- Index of afflictions.

Takes readers on a liberating, invigorating journey toward a more meaningful life -- a journey that begins not with fantasies of the ideal existence but with the reality in which we actually find ourselves. -- Publisher's description.