"When you visualize the finite number of times something will happen, your priorities adjust."
Tim Urban
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Want a Better Life Strategy? Track Your Life in Weeks.
posted in Business Coaching
Adam Kreek
We overestimate what we can do in a week…
And completely ignore the 5,218 weeks that make up a long, healthy life.
That’s right. You only get 5,218 weeks if you live to 100.
The real question is: What are you doing with them?
Why track your life in weeks?
Because it gives you something most people never stop to gain: perspective.
When you zoom out, the hard weeks shrink in size. The joyful seasons stand out. Patterns reveal themselves.
It’s like building your own personal dashboard for life and strategy.
Three reasons this tool works:
- You gain perspective on your past
- You recognize patterns in your life
- You plan your future with more clarity
I use this tool in high-level coaching and to assist clients when they need deeper context while completing the Values-Driven Achievement Workbook. It helps my clients align their values, set more effective goals, and recover more quickly when life gets messy.
How to chart your life in weeks
This can be done with a spreadsheet, journal, mural paper, online whiteboard or any wall you’re allowed to write on. Here’s the process I teach:
- Count every week of your life from birth until now. Plot them visually.
- Mark down the moments that mattered — good, bad, long, short.
- Use colour to identify themes:
- Work and Education
- Family and Romance
- Location and Travel
- Self-Development and Personal Growth
- Any other category that's shaped your path
- Add labels and notes. Highlight patterns. See what repeats. Look for turning points.
What you’ll discover
This isn’t just a walk down memory lane. It’s a structured way to uncover:
- Repeating challenges that reveal hidden values or blind spots
- High-growth periods that can inform your next strategy
- Moments of alignment when everything felt “right”
And when those themes surface, your values do, too.
Why it matters
Tracking your life in weeks provides a foundation for effective life planning.
This exercise helps you:
- Build a grounded, personal strategic plan
- Identify legacy-building moments
- Make peace with the past and move forward with focus
- Stay accountable to what matters most
It’s one of the most effective tools I use with clients who are burned out, blocked, or simply ready to take the next big step.
Final Thought
You don’t need more time. You need a better relationship with the time you already have.
This exercise was inspired by two powerful sources: the Stoic principle of memento mori — a reminder to reflect on the brevity of life — and the viral blog post “The Tail End” by Tim Urban at Wait But Why. The Stoics encouraged visual reminders of mortality not to induce fear, but to inspire urgency and clarity in how we live each day. Urban’s piece puts this into perspective by breaking life down into weeks, highlighting how few meaningful moments we have left with loved ones. These ideas combined into a tool I now use to help clients and course participants live more strategically and intentionally.
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Adam Kreek is on a mission to positively impact organizational cultures and leaders who make things happen.
Kreek is an Executive Business Coach who lives in Victoria, BC, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Seattle, Washington, USA, in the Pacific Northwest. He works with clients globally, often travelling to California in the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Georgia, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. He is an Olympic Gold Medalist, a storied adventurer and a father.
He authored the bestselling business book, The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen.
Discover our thoughts on Values here.
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