4,000 Weeks in a lifetime

*Here’s How We’re Spending Ours at Artstash

If you live to 80, you get roughly 4,000 weeks on this planet. This is the premise of Oliver Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks. It can sound like a lot of time, and at the same moment, feel scarily finite. That perspective lands differently depending on where you are in life (or even just where you are in your day). For us, it hits differently when your work revolves around creating marketing content for one of the most immersive forms of entertainment out there: mobile games.

At Artstash Creative, time is something we think about constantly. Not just deadlines (though yes, those too), but all the small decisions that shape how we work when to answer that Slack ping, reply to an email, or decide which creative to prioritize.

On the client side, time takes a different shape:

How long will the agency take to deliver?

How long does a player stay in the game?

How long before a player converts, or churns?

And outside work, time questions keep stacking up:
When do I tackle my to-do list?
When do I reply to that friend’s message?
Start a family? Change jobs? Learn to play padel? Try the cold plunge? Sauna?
(Okay, we might be spiralling now.)

But that’s the point: we’re all constantly deciding what’s worth our attention. And in marketing, those decisions matter. It could be the difference between a happy client and a not-so-happy one. Between work that delivers results and work that just ticks a box.

We often find ourselves asking:
How do I do more with the time I have?
How do I please clients, hit targets, keep the creative sharp and still feel fulfilled?
Basically: how do I become Superman without losing my cape in the process?
(And yes, we know some of it is out of our control but still, we try.)

The Trap of the Ticking Clock

Burkeman’s central argument isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about realizing you’ll never get it all done. Time isn’t something to “manage” so much as something to experience. And weirdly enough, that mindset fits perfectly inside a fast-moving, performance-driven gaming agency.

In agency life, especially in performance marketing, there’s a constant hum of urgency: new launches, DAUs, campaign metrics. Everything is “go, go, go.” If you’re not careful, it can feel like you’re sprinting through your 4,000 weeks, trying to beat the clock. And just when you finally deliver something you’re genuinely proud of, after weeks (or months) of polishing the moment’s passed. The algorithm has changed. The trend’s over. Someone else has already tested that idea, scaled it, and moved on.

Creating Moments, Not Just Content

Burkeman talks about the futility of obsessively optimizing your life for productivity, as if life were an app you could debug. He argues for depth, attention, and embracing limits. And that resonates with us. At Artstash Creative, we work hard, really hard. We push ourselves creatively, we’re constantly learning, testing new tools (enter AI), and adapting to change. But we’ve also learned that more isn’t always better. It’s not about cramming everything in, it’s about taking a breath, focusing on what matters. The big ideas. The real impact. The work that moves the needle for our clients and keeps our team inspired.

In gaming, your audience can swipe away in an instant. Your campaign is one of a thousand they’ll see today. The only way to make someone stop scrolling, or keep playing, is to create a moment worth having, Content that’s meaningful not because it speaks to everyone, but because it hooks the right person, the intended audience.

In Gaming, Moments Matter

In mobile gaming, your audience can swipe away in an instant. Your campaign is one of a thousand they’ll see today. The only way to make someone stop scrolling, or keep playing, is to create a moment worth having. Content that’s meaningful not because it hooks everyone, but because it hooks the right one.

Slowing Down to Speed Up

Ironically, some of our best work happens when we slow down. (Don’t worry we still hit deadlines. Having a global team working across time zones definitely helps.)

But it’s in those early planning moments when we resist the urge to just crank out content that we create our sharpest work. We take time to ask better questions:

What does this ad really want to say?

What’s our campaign strategy, what’s the story here?

What does success look like this week, not every week?

Are we optimizing for the right outcome, higher IPMs, better ROAS, more engagement?

This is how we make the most of our time, and our clients’ to build campaigns that perform and connect.

Time Well Spent

The mobile gaming world moves fast. But your time, and your audience’s is finite. It’s worth protecting.

At Artstash Creative, we don’t see time as a resource to drain. We see it as a canvas.
Every campaign, every creative spark, every collaboration is a chance to make something meaningful. Something players will remember. Something worth their precious minutes.

Because in the end, we may only get 4,000 weeks.