Your Life in Weeks

Tim Urban’s Life in Weeks is such a simple and powerful way to see your entire life laid out in weekly blocks. I always revisit it during the holidays as a forcing function to appreciate the time I have with my family.

I dove into this concept back in early 2022 in a post titled “FIRE = TIME”, where I created my own version of Tim’s visual. A lot has changed since then, even though it’s only three more rows of squares filled in. I felt a fresh look was in order.

My Life in Weeks (so far)

Each week is represented by an avocado. Each row is 52 avocados, or one year. I highlighted a few of my recent milestones. Looking back is fun, but it’s the view into the future that brings the holiday existentialism I’m aiming for.

My Future Life in Weeks

This starts to hit harder.

Between her birth and when she starts college is ~18.5 rows of avocados. Roughly 45% of those avocados are already in the past.

It reminds me that I have 10 more Thanksgivings and 10 more Christmases before my daughter is in college.

Will she come home during the break to visit us? I hope so. Although, I don’t think I always made the Thanksgiving trek home.

Will she be off traveling with friends instead? Need the time to finish a paper or project? Choose to spend it with another family?

I am thankful that I get to see my own mother ~2 weeks per year.

Which brings up further thoughts I don’t want to contemplate too deeply.

But it does remind me to close my laptop now, and more deeply appreciate the time I have, and be thankful for those around me.

All those future avocados are far from guaranteed.

-Andre

I highly recommend WaitbutWhy’s “Tail End” which is the source and inspiration behind this.