Four Thousand Weeks

On burnout and our finite capacity

By the time the winter holidays came around this year, I was flirting with burnout. Tasks and projects I had taken on started falling through the cracks. A floor of exhaustion was creeping in to my work life and I started neglecting many of my habits.

So it was great luck that my wife bought me 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman for Christmas. The book has helped me identify some of the flaws in how I was managing my personal productivity. And how I might avoid burnout in the future.

The book’s subtitle is Time Management for Mortals. Though it does have some practical tips, it’s more of philosophical take on time management than a self-help book. The main thesis of the book is that our anxiety about our own time and how we use it comes from a failure to appreciate our finitude.

Humans have, on average, 4,000 weeks in their lives (hey, that’s the name of the book!). Given that finite time, you can only do so much. Yet, we tend to assume that future us has infinite capacity—that we’ll be able to do everything we want to… eventually.

I think productivity geeks like myself and Burkeman feel this more strongly. Once we master our time with the right productivity hacks and time management strategies, then we will be able to do everything.

Burkeman argues that this supposed enlightened state—when you’ve finally got the right habits and systems; when you’ve finally tamed your to-do list and are in complete control of your time—doesn’t exist. Life will continue to bring new problems to solve and more external demands on your time. And, ultimately, you are a finite being with limited time. Those 4,000 or so weeks are all you have.

Sure, you can increase your efficiency. I have seen my own productivity improve many-fold with various new habits and strategies. But one thing that tends to happen is that these gains in efficiency just lead to more demands on your time, not less. When I start to feel more in control of my time, I tend to get over confident and start taking on more projects—eventually overshooting my capacity and getting burnt out.

So, while I’m not going to abandon experiments with my own productivity, I will be trying to internalize Burkeman’s message. I am a finite being with limited capacity— and that’s okay! It means I have to make more explicit decisions about how I spend my finite time. It means giving up the dream that one day I will be in complete control of my time and, instead, accepting the discomfort of the present.

Most productivity advice will tell you to “say no to things”, so you can focus on what matters. And, while I recognized the value in that—especially with respect to external demands on my time—what I need to get better at is saying no to myself.

Now, back to building.

- Russell