Four Thousand Weeks

Why I picked it up

I read it straight after a September of saying yes to too many things. The title, roughly the number of weeks in an average life, did most of the work before I opened it.

What changed

The argument, as I took it, is that you will never get through everything, so the real skill is choosing what to leave undone. I stopped keeping a someday list. Things I care about now either get a date or get let go.

That changed how I pick projects. I used to start anything that looked fun. Now each one gets a question first: is this worth some of the weeks?

Where I push back

It is easy to read this as permission to drift. I don't think it is. Choosing a few things on purpose takes more discipline than trying to do all of them, and the book is lighter on how than on why.

Where it led

A finite number of weeks is a countdown. A few weeks later I was building one for my new tab.