#Productivity #Time_Management #Philosophy/Lite *March 20, 2025* ![[Four-Thousand-Weeks-Cover.png]] [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Management-Mortals/dp/0374159122) This is a delightful book that takes its approach from that of the usual self-help or productivity book, but goes far beyond that in its depth. The whole concept of four thousand weeks is a framing around the length of life and the fact that it is finite. On average, we can have only around four thousand weeks to do all the things we wish, which seems horribly short. Much of the book tackles the curious phenomenon of time's slipperiness from several angles. Trying to hold on to time is like trying to hold on to water. It slips from your grasp and even if you did manage to get it into a bucket, it evaporates or must be used for important things. In modern times this is something we try to ignore and insist we don't suffer from. We try to signal that we are in control of our time and that our life is on a trajectory that will take us somewhere important, but in reality we are living through the process of life without too much control over how it goes. In fact, the more control we have over how our time is spent, the less satisfying life is inclined to become. One of the main issues we have with time in the modern age is opportunity cost. All time that is spent in one way can't be spent in another. I spend 4 hours reading this book, therefore I can not spend 4 hours playing my drums. This causes a great deal of confusion because our mental model of time is often capitalistic -- "time is money." So we try to capture and control as much time as we can in the hope that we can become wealthy, but the effect is counterintuitive. The more you feel an abundance of time, the more difficult it becomes to commit your time a certain way. One of the messages of the book is that if you live with the mindfulness that all time is taking you closer to death, that can help you respect the value of time more. My summary here is relatively lackluster and you're probably thinking this sounds kind of cliche, and to some degree it is. A lot of the things in this book are ideas I've come across before or figured out for myself over my life and studies in philosophy, but the framing they're given in this book are at once uplifting and fatalistic. The other two things that the book really hones in on are how our attention influences the way we spend our time, and how individualism and collectivism have different outcomes on the way we spend time. I'd recommend reading this book if you are thinking about how to get more out of your time, because what you probably need to hear the most isn't a bunch of techniques for getting more productivity out of yourself but rather ideas about how to practice wisdom in the management of your time. It's also an enjoyable read; I clocked the author as being British within the first few pages by the style and he does not disappoint.