Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals explores what it means to face mortality realistically and try to make meaningful choices within the limited human lifespan (around 4,000 weeks).
The book deals with some big challenges of modern life: feeling driven to master our schedules and get through tasks to make it to an abstracted future where we’ll finally get to do what is most meaningful to us, as well as societal pressures to optimize productivity and “have it all.”
Burkeman offers that “the moment of truth is always now… life is nothing but a succession of present moments, culminating in death…you’ll probably never get to a point where you feel you have things in perfect working order. And therefore you had better stop postponing the ‘real meaning’ of your existence into the future, and throw yourself into life now.”
This realist perspective can feel stark, but the book is full of touching and funny anecdotes as Burkeman incorporates ideas from spiritual traditions, philosophy, and psychology in approaching how humans can make the best of life by facing our limitations with clear eyes. A sampling of points he makes along the way:
The world is bursting with wonder and we should embrace these experiences whenever possible. Curiosity helps us do this.
Consider allowing things to take the time they take. There can be meaning and value in this.
Consider responding to the needs of your place and moment in history instead of being too focused on a predetermined definition of success for your life.
Reduce anxiety through practices of releasing the desire to control the future: “You can’t know that things will turn out all right. The struggle for certainty is an intrinsically hopeless one—which means you have permission to stop engaging in it.”
Leisure and rest have intrinsic value. “In order to most fully inhabit the only life you ever get, you have to refrain from using every spare hour for personal growth.”
When faced with a choice, ask yourself, “Does this choice enlarge me or diminish me?”
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