Reviews

Do Nothing: Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing and Underliving by Celeste Headlee

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tayloormc's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

mandaluci9's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

2.5

jachelrames's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

halthemonarch's review against another edition

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5.0

As someone who is depressed and currently doing nothing (with my life, that is), I read this book as a way to get out of my head. Headlee's book is a well-researched and thorough essay outlining the benefits of making time for yourself and the things you find important, narrowing down your distractions, cutting screen time, and many more tips and tricks to improve your relationship with your means of work that seem obvious but are much easier said than done.

I (assume I will) get something different from this book than my workaholic mother. I learned to identify the signs of burnout and realized that I need to treat myself differently if I want to change. My mom, who hasn't read it yet, I assume will learn how to categorize her busy and overwhelming schedule. There's something in these pages for everyone; The overworked, and the underliving.

ashction's review against another edition

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4.0

I enjoyed most of this book a lot! The first half (two-thirds, really), are a great, history-based examination of how we got to such a work-driven culture that we worship with more zeal than actual religion. That was actually my favorite part, and the most thought-provoking portion. However, the latter half, which was designed to be ways to "hack" your way out of this mentality (which does frankly defeat the purpose of a book that argues hacking your way INTO productivity is a problem, but I digress) had a very inapplicable perspective for what I would consider many working class individuals to actually need. I didn't find any of it particularly useful or original, and I think it could have been left out entirely - but I bet her publisher asked for more self-help tips so they could make it a better sell. However, I didn't pick it up for advice, so it really didn't bother me that it was useless aside from the fact it makes it glaringly obvious that it's much easier to break away from overworking, overdoing, and underliving when you're a self-made entrepreneur whose job is speaking and writing. Not so easy for the rest of us!