How a coach helps you maximise your 4,000 weeks on earth

4000 weeks. That's all most of us have on earth, assuming we live to 80. When I read the title of the book: '4,000 weeks, Time Management for Mortals' by Oliver Burkeman I was shocked by the shortness of time available to us mortals.

But once I started the book, I was hooked and raced through it during the Christmas holidays. While you might want to read it yourself, some key points from the books struck me as immediately implementable. And very similar to what a coach supports you with.

1) Plan work in increments not all at once

One of the biggest game-changers for me was to plan work in two-hour chunks of time addressing several projects in a day. A bit of an all-or-nothing person, it's hard to break the journalist habit of filing copy in one go. So while I allotted days to various projects, only the immediate ones were getting done. This has helped me make more progress in the last few weeks than ever before. This approach has also helped me crack an 11,000-word survey report in 3 weeks while still handling multiple projects.

How a coach can help: Key to this method is the selection of what projects to select. A coach can support you in understanding the value of these projects to your life and growth. To be clear this is not a mere to-do list but progress in life list without the distraction of an immediate deadline.

2) Face your mortality

Those of you who are parents have probably heard 'Let it Go', the iconic song from Frozen on repeat. This book helps you face mortality, not in a negative way, but in terms of the sheer potential of your life. When you understand this, anxiety drops away. At least, that was my experience and it happened pretty fast. It also helps you stay in the present.

How a coach can help: A key highlight of this book, is that the very approach of time management for the future is self-defeating. Firstly, our tasks are never-ending and self-renewing. That Inbox is never going to get to zero. A coach helps you realise this and understand that your future is now. Let everything else go, This is not to say we don't plan at all, but make greater space for planning smartly so we can do what we want now.

3) The wonder of life

Without making a spiritual case for it, our mere existence is a matter of great wonder and beauty. When we postpone living in the future, we discard current joys and connections and rob ourselves of the sheer delight that life is.

How a coach can help: We can feel that our work and life challenges our so heavy that there is no life in well, life. A coach can help you understand why you feel this way, revive yourself and live better. To be clear, a coach is not a clinical counsellor or psychiatrist, but a cheerleader and systematic partner for making and implementing your goals.

So embrace 2023 with full arms, and rejoice in life.