4000 Weeks Poster Generator

This Python project generates vertical timeline posters representing an individual's life in weeks (up to 4000 weeks, roughly 76 years). Each week is represented by a small square, with specific life events highlighted in custom colors and labeled next to the corresponding row.

What It Does

• Visualizes 4000 weeks of a person's life.
• Highlights past weeks in black.
• Allows life events (birth, marriage, etc.) to be annotated with colored squares and labels.
• Aligns the grid to start from the actual week of birth.
• Reads multiple people's configurations from a single YAML file and outputs one image per person.

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How to Use

1. Clone the repository

git clone git@github.com:Naam/4kweeks.git
cd 4kweeks

2. Create a Python virtual environment

python3 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Contents of requirements.txt:

matplotlib
pyyaml

4. Create your configuration file

Name it people.yaml and place it in the same directory. Here's the structure:

john_doe:
  - birthdate: "1982-02-02"
  - events:
      "2000-02-02": "Officially an adult"
      "2011-07-07": "Married"
      "2015-02-19": "Child is born"

jane_smith:
  - birthdate: "1985-01-01"
  - events:
      "2003-06-01": "Graduated high school"
      "2010-09-15": "First job"

Name and birthdate are mandatory to align the grid and generate the file. Events are optional but great for milestones and major events.

5. Run the generator

python generator.py

Each person in the config file will get a corresponding PNG image like:

john_doe_4000_weeks.png
jane_smith_4000_weeks.png

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Customization

• The colors for events are currently set to red globally but can be customized per event with small code changes.
• You can easily tweak cell spacing, fonts, and figure size in generator.py.

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Example

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Credits

This project was inspired by the ideas presented in Oliver Burkeman's book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals — particularly the concept of visualizing a human lifespan in weeks to bring clarity and intentionality to how we use our time.

Design inspiration was also drawn from similar week-grid visualizations found online, including waitbutwhy.com and various open-source projects exploring this theme.

This implementation is an original work designed to be flexible, customizable, and friendly to non-technical users through YAML configuration.