Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote in Being and Time (1927) about his amazement that there is any kind of life at all, as opposed to nothing. He states that the human condition is to be preoccupied with time, knowing that our end will arrive, but not knowing precisely when. Rather than stating that we have a limited amount of time, Heidegger conceived that we “are a limited amount of time” and that this state defines us (59). Burkeman argues that adopting a Heideggerian perspective on time makes him aware of his limitations. This is because his life-trajectory thus far limits what opportunities are available to him in the present, and any future decision he makes will close off a theoretically infinite number of other options. Heidegger’s central question concerns whether we will confront the finitude of our existence. He was aware of how people chose myriad distractions, such as busyness or living our lives according to a prescribed formula, to avoid confronting the responsibility of finitude.

In his book, This Life (2019), the Swedish philosopher Martin Hägglund argues that life’s finitude is what gives it its meaning.