A friend of mine recently recommended the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. 

Oliver Burkeman is a British author and journalist who writes a column for the Guardian newspaper. He also publishes a biweekly email called The Imperfectionist which discusses productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life.

With its thought-provoking title, Four Thousand Weeks makes the point that if we live until age eighty, we only have four thousand weeks in our lives. Time is one of our most precious resources.

Our modern world has defined success as being productive and efficient to accomplish our goals. This striving to get more and more done only increases stress and anxiety. Recognizing that your time is limited can help you focus on what matters to you. Once you recognize that life is finite you can cultivate a fulfilling life.

A key message from the book is to live for the present moment, not for the future. 

Here are some ideas from the book:

• Thinking of time as a resource causes anxiety. “Once time is a resource to be used, you start to feel pressure whether from external forces or from yourself, to use it well, and to berate yourself when you fell you have wasted it.”

• Stop trying to “get through” things. “Our days are spent trying to “get through” tasks in order to get them “out of the way”, with the result that we live mentally in the future, waiting for when we’ll finally get around to what really matters.”

• Distraction is not relaxation. “The crucial point isn’t that it’s wrong to choose your time relaxing… It’s that the distracted person isn’t really choosing at all. Their attention has been commandeered by forces that don’t have their highest interests at heart.”

• Using your time “well” takes you out of the present moment. “The more you focus on using time well, the more each day begins to feel like something you have to get through, en route to some calmer, better, more fulfilling point in the future.”

• Take pride in having hobbies. “The hobbyist is subversive; he insists that some things are worth doing for themselves alone, despite offering no payoffs in terms of productivity or profit.”

The overriding theme is to prioritize what is most important to you given your limited weeks. Time with family. Time with friends. Working on just the things that are fun or meaningful to you. 

Other resources for exploring how you use your time:

Lee Byron has an excellent visual summary of the book’s principles on his website. You can enter in your birthdate, and it will customize the experience to reflect the finite weeks that you have left.

Tim Urban has written two posts on his website, waitbutwhy.com that amplify and visualize the messages from Four Thousand Weeks.

In Your Life in Weeks he graphically represents a human life in years, months, weeks, and days. He emphasizes that your life is finite, your weeks are all that you have. You should enjoy your weeks and do things that improve your future or the lives of others.

In The Tail End Urban expands the concept to thinking of the limited number of events or activities that he has left.

For example, he is in the last 5% of time that he has to spend with his parents. His takeaways form this thought experiment:

1. Living in the same place as the people you love matters. (He has 10x the time left with people who live in his city as he does with people who live somewhere else.
2. Priorities matter. Your remaining face time with any person depends largely where that person falls on your list of priorities. Make sure the list is set by you- not by unconscious inertia.
3. Quality time matters. If you are in the last 10% of time with someone you love, keep that fact in the front of your mind when you are with them; treat that time as precious.

I hope you will prioritize what is important to you, take time to relax, and stop falling into the productivity trap. Make the most of your weeks and intentionally plan your time. As always, we are here for you. Please email or call if you want to set up a Zoom video conference meeting or talk by phone.

Ralph Broadwater, M.D., CFP®

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