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646 reviews for:
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
Celeste Headlee
3.87 AVERAGE
646 reviews for:
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
Celeste Headlee
3.87 AVERAGE
A world that asks us to toil every weekday with our jobs is one that we must navigate and account for. This book counters the life hacking, unfocused nature of our every day in exchange for being us and living our best lives. I deeply recommend this to anyone who has felt in these past couple of years the pressure that workplaces have been faced with.
challenging
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Very interesting. Changed my perspective
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
What triggers you these days? We cannot mention anything anymore without it detonating someone somewhere.
"Fantasy football?" "THE KNEES, OH THE KNEEEEEEESSSS."
"My kid's starting preschool..." "CRITICAL RACE THEORY."
"I'm going over they're." "THERE."
My current trigger is the idea that I was born to work 40+ hours a week and GRIND my way to the top. Hard work work work work work. Then, eh, play. Last summer, I built myself a website and did some freelance projects on top of my full-time job before I said, "Nope."
I've already reviewed a book that suggested a 15-hour work week ([b:Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World|40876575|Utopia for Realists How We Can Build the Ideal World|Rutger Bregman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1618785125l/40876575._SX50_.jpg|49847901]), and this book echoes the sentiments of accomplishing the same while working less. Look, I agree 15 hours is extreme, so chill. Captain Trigger Finger over here is just trying to make some points:
- Working hourly (for most industries) is dumb for all parties.
- "Lazy" people tend to find the best solutions to problems.
- I'm happier knowing when and where I'm going to work for the week. If I'm going to be unhealthy, I'd rather eat donuts than answer emails offline.
For this book, however, it overlooks a glaring issue in some of the credited studies: workflow.
I left my last two jobs for the same reasons: The company was making moves and acquisitions that were "good for the brand." In both cases, I went on to ask, "But how is this good for me?" And, in both cases, I absorbed more and more work with no help on the horizon. So when overtime is the standard for some employees to do the bare minimum, the theory of being able to do 30 hours worth of work in 40 goes out the window.
I do not have an MBA. But, to my knowledge, a CEO cannot run a successful company by himself. Therefore, a company needs employees to make it successful. These are "no-duh" statements. So why then are there invisible lines drawn when it comes to hiring additional staff? You would think that spreading more work to more people would keep everyone happy, increase productivity and make the company, you know, successful. Did they teach that in MBA class?
And do not get me started on $$$$ this or $$$$ that. IT MAKES ME... TRIGGERED. My response when a multi billion dollar company complains about $$$$: "Figure it out."
Overall, I align with most of this book. Scheduling breaks, leaving work at work and embracing boredom are all well and good. However, the title of this tome does not entirely fit its contents. I was hoping for a book more centered on mindfulness and the art of actually doing nothing rather than doing less.
I took two weeks off this summer and spent many of those days taking my raft out to a lake to float. My neighbor asked "So what did you do out there?" "Nothing," I replied, to her amazement. I should write a book about that.
Another important note that goes beyond just this book: Far too often in Western culture, a progressive will adopt another culture's everyday habits into their life and be inexorably changed by the experience. They then go on to write a book about it.
While transformative stories from adopting new habits, much like this one, are nice to read about, these books will not stick with me as much as the teachings of Confucius or Thich Nhat Hahn.
It makes me think of that Bane quote: "Ah, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it."
I should aim to read more from the godparents of wisdom who have been telling us the same lessons for generations, in much purer forms. If only we'd listen the first time.
"Fantasy football?" "THE KNEES, OH THE KNEEEEEEESSSS."
"My kid's starting preschool..." "CRITICAL RACE THEORY."
"I'm going over they're." "THERE."
My current trigger is the idea that I was born to work 40+ hours a week and GRIND my way to the top. Hard work work work work work. Then, eh, play. Last summer, I built myself a website and did some freelance projects on top of my full-time job before I said, "Nope."
I've already reviewed a book that suggested a 15-hour work week ([b:Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World|40876575|Utopia for Realists How We Can Build the Ideal World|Rutger Bregman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1618785125l/40876575._SX50_.jpg|49847901]), and this book echoes the sentiments of accomplishing the same while working less. Look, I agree 15 hours is extreme, so chill. Captain Trigger Finger over here is just trying to make some points:
- Working hourly (for most industries) is dumb for all parties.
- "Lazy" people tend to find the best solutions to problems.
- I'm happier knowing when and where I'm going to work for the week. If I'm going to be unhealthy, I'd rather eat donuts than answer emails offline.
For this book, however, it overlooks a glaring issue in some of the credited studies: workflow.
I left my last two jobs for the same reasons: The company was making moves and acquisitions that were "good for the brand." In both cases, I went on to ask, "But how is this good for me?" And, in both cases, I absorbed more and more work with no help on the horizon. So when overtime is the standard for some employees to do the bare minimum, the theory of being able to do 30 hours worth of work in 40 goes out the window.
I do not have an MBA. But, to my knowledge, a CEO cannot run a successful company by himself. Therefore, a company needs employees to make it successful. These are "no-duh" statements. So why then are there invisible lines drawn when it comes to hiring additional staff? You would think that spreading more work to more people would keep everyone happy, increase productivity and make the company, you know, successful. Did they teach that in MBA class?
And do not get me started on $$$$ this or $$$$ that. IT MAKES ME... TRIGGERED. My response when a multi billion dollar company complains about $$$$: "Figure it out."
Overall, I align with most of this book. Scheduling breaks, leaving work at work and embracing boredom are all well and good. However, the title of this tome does not entirely fit its contents. I was hoping for a book more centered on mindfulness and the art of actually doing nothing rather than doing less.
I took two weeks off this summer and spent many of those days taking my raft out to a lake to float. My neighbor asked "So what did you do out there?" "Nothing," I replied, to her amazement. I should write a book about that.
Another important note that goes beyond just this book: Far too often in Western culture, a progressive will adopt another culture's everyday habits into their life and be inexorably changed by the experience. They then go on to write a book about it.
While transformative stories from adopting new habits, much like this one, are nice to read about, these books will not stick with me as much as the teachings of Confucius or Thich Nhat Hahn.
It makes me think of that Bane quote: "Ah, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it."
I should aim to read more from the godparents of wisdom who have been telling us the same lessons for generations, in much purer forms. If only we'd listen the first time.
informative
medium-paced
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Just what I needed
informative
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced