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Making a New Year's Resolution? Don't Go to War With Yourself. - The Atlantic

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“The difference between not doing anything at all and doing 10 minutes a few times a week is absolute.” 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. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Caroline Mimbs Nyce: Do you think New Year’s resolutions are worth making, considering we’re all going to die, as your book posits so bluntly? Oliver Burkeman: [Laughs.] I don’t think the fact that we’re all going to die means that setting intentions for personal changes is automatically a bad thing. Confronting how

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. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Caroline Mimbs Nyce:

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