We can ' t control the future
We can ’ t control our lifespan
We can ’ t control the speed of life
media is shrinking our attention spans and filling our days with junk .
You ' ve heard this all before , but don ’ t blame social media , our short attention spans , or our hectic lives for how we feel , says Oliver Burkeman , the author of Four Thousand Weeks : Time Management for Mortals . The real underlying driver for all this is something more existential , what he calls the nonacceptance of our “ finitude ”— our limits . Whether you agree with his argument or not , his ideas provide plenty of food for thought . Here ’ s my take on what he believes those limits are the following .
We can ' t control the future
We ’ re constantly making plans , making lists , looking ahead , or adopting what Burkeman calls the “ when I finally get there ” way of thinking — when I retire , when I get the promo‐ tion , when I get married — then I can relax , settle , move for‐ ward , etc . We look ahead and want certainty : What if I marry the wrong person and it doesn ’ t work out , or I take this job and don ’ t like it ? We hesitate , we are afraid to make commit‐ ments , we are constantly thinking in terms of what-ifs , and as a result , are anxious or second-guessing ourselves .
The obvious reality check here is that we can ’ t control the fu‐ ture ; we can never be certain how things will turn out . We can only live in the present , make the best decision now and solve problems only when they are firmly lying in our laps .
We can ’ t control our lifespan
The 4,000 weeks of Burkeman ’ s title refers to how many weeks we have if we live till we ’ re 80 . We won ’ t live forever , or perhaps not even until tomorrow , but , he says , we act like we will — living in the future , making plans , having unrealistic goals , and staying busy and distracting ourselves from the re‐ ality that time is running out .
We can ’ t control the speed of life
One of Burkeman ’ s major points is that many things in life will take as long as they need to take . Your efforts to get your toddler to move more quickly to get out of the house will likely slow the process down even more . Doing art , writing a book , or anything creative can ’ t be hurried , nor can reading a novel if you really want to read it .