“I don’t think there’s anything helpful about resolutions that put you at war with yourself.”
New Year’s resolutions are a time for reflection—a chance to think about the limited time we have on this Earth and how to use it wisely.
Oliver Burkeman is a writer who focuses on this nexus of mortality and productivity. He is the author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals (4,000 weeks is about the length of the average American’s life span). I caught up with him to discuss New Year’s–resolution making and breaking, and why you should consider not setting your resolutions until mid-January.
I do think that in the culture of New Year’s resolutions, there’s a really heavy dose of perfectionism—a sense in which it’s all about starting completely afresh and being completely perfect in some area of life from this day forward. I don’t think fresh starts like that are actually possible, and I don’t think aiming to make them is the healthiest way to change.
