My Review of Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

If you have ever felt like there is not enough time to do everything you want no matter how hard you have worked already.

I hear you.

It’s like no matter how much we have accomplished and even though we have already worked like a machine for as long as we can remember, there is still so much left undone and we even still feel guilty for taking a break.

This shouldn’t be how we live our lives.

Months ago, I came about the book: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman, and it really changed my view of my relationship with time, and most importantly, helped me have more peace with time.

In this article, I’ll review this wonderful book and provide you with a summary of the key mindset shifts I gained from it.

First of All, Why the Title “Four Thousand Weeks”?

According to Oliver Burkeman, the author, assuming you live to be eighty, you will have about four thousand weeks on this planet, which he describes as “absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.”

This is also why the book is titled “Four Thousand Weeks”.

I am not telling you this to make you feel more anxious or cram more things in. Rather, I want to remind us that really, we are all going to die someday. Although “I’m going to die someday” is not a new fact to me (or anyone), there is still a mindset shift there.

Mindset Shift #1 — Face FOMO with no fear

With this finite time we have here and the infinite experiences the world can offer, there will always be worthwhile, or even great experiences that we will miss out on.

This is a fact we cannot escape. Burkeman describes it as ‘existential overwhelm’.

The modern world provides an inexhaustible supply of things that seem worth doing. So, there arises an inevitable and unbridgeable gap between what you’d ideally like to do and what you actually can do.

The more wonderful experiences you succeed in having, the more additional wonderful experiences you start to feel you could have, or ought to have, on top of all those you’ve already had, with the result that the feeling of existential overwhelm gets worse.

“Existential Overwhelm” — I mean, I just resonate with this term so much! (cry cry). Because honestly, oftentimes my overwhelm comes from FOMO and I hate myself for not being able to experience all the good things in life! The truth is, with an infinite amount of opportunities, but a finite amount of time, we will always feel overwhelmed if we cannot accept the fact that, no matter how we manage time and be productive, we are always going to miss out on something “worthwhile”.

My solution to this? Everytime I choose to do something, I remind myself that I am also choosing NOT to do something and that’s a decision itself. Most importantly, I ask myself not to be afraid of missing out on that and instead just face it.

A big one would be, because my career and my business are really my priorities now (I know there are two priorities here), I have chosen to be single during this season of my life because honestly, dating can take you a lot of time and energy.

And to all my ladies out there.

YES, you can choose to be single and in fact do whatever you want because, this is YOUR life, period.

Mindset Shift #2 — Time is NOT a “resource”

Time is what life is made of, it is not a “resource” that can be used.

Burkeman describes how the invention of the clocks and therefore the concept of time can be “solely to blame for our time-related troubles” today.

Before, time was just the medium in which life unfolded, the stuff that life was made of. Afterwards, once ‘time’ and ‘life’ had been separated in most people’s minds, time became a thing that you used. 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 feel you’ve wasted it.

This got me thinking most of the time management strategies out there are about developing a perfect schedule or boosting my productivity to the highest level possible. But even though I’m always being strategic and checking off my list of tasks, I still feel a sense of overwhelm because no matter how diligent and disciplined I am, there is just no way I can ever catch up and be ahead of all the things I want to.

Like Burkeman says, productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster.

So, instead of finding the next time management system to make us feel less overwhelmed, maybe it’s more helpful for us to just understand that — we can never ‘use time’ because time is not something separate from us. When we accept that we “live in time”, it takes our pressure off from feeling like we need to ‘make the most of our time’ and cram more things into our already tight schedule.

I am not asking you to start wasting your time doing meaningless things. Rather, I am asking all of us to shift our focus back to “making the best use of us, or ourselves.”

And for me, that entails living in the moment and serving others because we are all part of the one.

Mindset shift #3 — Life is easier if we surrender

Like Burkeman says, if we could just accept the fact that we can never get all things done, we would be more able to experience psychological freedom.

To me, that means surrendering ourselves to time, to life, and actually to God. I know there is no need for me to fight against my reality with sheer willpower, because whatever I seek that is not yet humanly accessible or comprehensible, I can always lean on God or the higher power and trust that everything will work out for the best.

At the end of day, all we want is just more peace and joy in life.

Ironically, we overwhelm ourselves with work and experiences believing that they will make us achieve peace and joy someday in the future. The truth is that peace, joy, and happiness are available ALL THE TIME. The more often we live life in the moment and let it unfold naturally, the more we are able to experience the beauty in our lives.

Finally my friends, I want to remind you that, while we have no power to change or use time, we have such power over our thoughts. And the freedom of thought, is the greatest freedom.

If the current economy is making you feel stuck and you feel like there is no way out. I hear you because I was there just earlier. I have an article (and video) on the topic, and I want to let you know that, you never need to handle all this stress alone.

Mandy Cheung is a senior corporate finance advisor in Hong Kong’s capital market and a certified life coach. She helps female professionals start a side business in 30 days so that they can create the life they desire and be aligned with who they want to be, with no more BS or drama. For more information visit https://mandycheung.coach/.