2022: 52 out of 4,000 weeks

I’m listening to a book titled “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman.* The premise is that we only live on average 4,000 weeks. Where ones spends her time and where she puts her attention is her life. It’s not something else; it’s not what we wish it were. What we do in these 4,000 weeks is our life.

*For an excellent summary of “Four Thousand Weeks”, read this blog post by The Marginalian.

Another 52 weeks is coming to a close. What did you accomplish? If you really think about this, my guess is you’ll find you did more and accomplished more than you realize. You may also find that you set a goal back in March that’s still unachieved. (I recently realized this about myself when I was looking back through my journals for the year and realized that some of my goals are unmet all these months later. I’m in the process of reevaluating those goals to see which ones will enter 2022 with me.)

As a famous saying goes, we overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what we can achieve in ten years. Looking at this from a shorter time frame, we overestimate what we can do in a week but underestimate what we can do in year. Time moves on whether we work toward our goals or not.

In Dorie Clark’s new book, The Long Game: How to be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, she helps the reader move toward their longer term goals. In an interview with Forbes, she states: “Strategic patience recognizes that things often do take a while – in fact, often much longer than we want them to. That being said, we can work toward them assiduously, track our progress, and adjust if it seems like things aren’t developing the way we want (or if another, better option presents itself). It’s being patient so we can pursue long-term goals that are substantial and meaningful, but still steering our own destiny.”

If you need some help identifying your priorities, consider mind mapping. I find it to be a creative way to think about and organize ideas. As I mind map, I see connections between related ideas. As I see more connections to a given idea, I find that idea is a higher priority for me. 

I leave you with these questions: What will you achieve in 2022? What are your priorities for 2022?