Do Nothing
How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
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4.3 • 47 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
“A welcome antidote to our toxic hustle culture of burnout.”—Arianna Huffington
“This book is so important and could truly save lives.”—Elizabeth Gilbert
“A clarion call to work smarter [and] accomplish more by doing less.”—Adam Grant
We work feverishly to make ourselves happy. So why are we so miserable?
Despite our constant search for new ways to optimize our bodies and minds for peak performance, human beings are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally and reaching for a bar that keeps rising higher and higher. Why do we measure our time in terms of efficiency instead of meaning? Why can’t we just take a break?
In Do Nothing, award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee illuminates a new path ahead, seeking to institute a global shift in our thinking so we can stop sabotaging our well-being, put work aside, and start living instead of doing. As it turns out, we’re searching for external solutions to an internal problem. We won’t find what we’re searching for in punishing diets, productivity apps, or the latest self-improvement schemes. Yet all is not lost—we just need to learn how to take time for ourselves, without agenda or profit, and redefine what is truly worthwhile.
Pulling together threads from history, neuroscience, social science, and even paleontology, Headlee examines long-held assumptions about time use, idleness, hard work, and even our ultimate goals. Her research reveals that the habits we cling to are doing us harm; they developed recently in human history, which means they are habits that can, and must, be broken. It’s time to reverse the trend that’s making us all sadder, sicker, and less productive, and return to a way of life that allows us to thrive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Headlee (We Need to Talk) joins the crush of authors speaking out against society's addiction to "efficiency without purpose and productivity without production" in this comforting, convincing work. She begins by locating the origins of "the cult of efficiency": before the industrial age, people enjoyed a different concept of work, one that did not consider time equal to money. Once "more hours meant more money," the concept of work shifted, and so, too, did culture. In Headlee's estimation, society drastically overvalues putting in long hours at the office and pursuing "constant improvement and the most efficient life possible" in hobbies, exercise routines, and even time spent with families. The cost of this, she writes, is high: it not only comes at the expense of true productivity (as opposed to "performative busyness"), but also of happiness. Headlee provides concrete steps to help readers take control of their time, "challenge perceptions," and "take the long view." For example, time tracking will help readers gain a clearer vision of their working and leisure hours, which in turn will help them reprioritize. While there is little new advice to be found here, this will resonate with readers who appreciate works in the spirit of Jenny Oddell's How to Do Nothing.
Customer Reviews
Fantastically-researched
What I love most about this book is that it is chalk-full of history and other research that perfectly articulates both how we arrived with the plight on our hands and how to get out of it.
i read this book while doing nothing
i just finished it. am i still doing nothing if i’m writing this?