Four Thousand Weeks

If there is a “silver lining” to burnout, it’s that sometimes it can inspire growth and change. Four Thousand Weeks inspired me to do some soul-searching on what I care most about in my life, and to rethink how I spend my time.

I always thought I struggled to manage time because I wasn’t efficient and focused enough - until I realized that wasn’t the problem! The problem was that I had too much on my plate, and I wasn’t making hard decisions about what needed to go, in order to have room for the more important things. Burkeman’s wise… show more.

In an unpretentious and funny tone, Burkeman communicates a wealth of profound insights about how humans might want to consider using their time on this earth.

I particularly appreciated the suggestion that we all try to slow down a little after the shock of COVID-19 to decide what we care about and to put our energy towards our higher purposes. Helped motivate me to buckle down and dedicate more time to writing about history in the most accessible way I can pull off!

Why is there never time to do everything I have to do? Why can I never get everything done at work? Why is everyone always demanding I do more and more? If you feel like this, you MUST read this book. 

Oliver puts it very bluntly – you only have four thousand weeks on Earth, then you die. This assumes an average life expectancy of 80 – workout what faction of that you have left and multiply by 4000, and that is how many weeks you have left – not many. 

This book helps you stop trying to do everything… show more.

Similar to the stoic Seneca, this book reminds us of the shortness of life. On average, we only live for 4000 weeks or 28000 days. Burkeman makes us aware that any decision we make closes off the possibility of countless other choices.

It is not about getting more things done in less time but about choosing the right things to do. At the very end of the book, he provides a list of 10 tools to deal with limited time that I found extremely helpful.

The subtitle of Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals caught my eye. I wanted more ideas about time management and assumed that’s what I’d find here. I didn’t think about the word “mortal”—a big mistake! Be prepared for the perspectives this book puts on your “finitude,” i.e., the finiteness of your life. “Time management is all life is.”

The title of Burkeman’s book refers to the 80 years (rounded) that, on average, we are granted to live our lives. As I write this, I am somewhere in my 4,270th week or so. So, this concept has more meaning when… show more.

No matter how good a job we do at figuring out what matters, we’re going to confront conflicts between goals.

That’s just life for mortal creatures: there are more valuable goals out there than we can fit in a single life.

Burkeman’s funny and insightful book provides a lot of good strategies for coping with limited time.

My father recommended this book to me.

He thought that Burkeman’s book and my book make a good pair: mine is about how to figure out what matters and his is about coming to terms with how little time you have to get… show more.

How do you fit in everything you need to do at work and in your home life? The answer is you can’t. Difficult choices must be made, and Oliver Burkeman’s latest book helps you do that. The usual time management advice focusses on people becoming more efficient, but this isn’t enough. Burkeman offers a more realistic appraisal and a set of insights that range from the practical to the profound. Your first test is to make sure you find the time to read it!  

Essential Skill #3 for Creatives: The ability to say no

Saying no is tricky, especially for people-pleasers. But if you don’t decide who you’ll say no to, in the end, no one will be happy with you. One of the many important lessons in Oliver Burkeman’s book is to decide in advance who you can disappoint. This book is both deep and practical at the same time, my favorite combination. In it, he makes a strong argument for reality in a way that very few books do these days. You just can’t argue with “Things take the time they take”… show more.

if you’re stuck because you can’t make the time to write or paint or choreograph a ballet based on Schitt’s Creek, Oliver will convince you to stop trying to get everything done, stop trying to get everything under control, let your expectations crash to the ground, and finally focus on what matters. He is the only guy to date I’ve had on my podcast.