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bootman 's review for:
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
by Celeste Headlee
I really wanted to dislike this book, but I couldn’t. It’s such a phenomenal book, and Celeste did an incredible job with it. I had her on my podcast a while back for her newer book Speaking of Race, and I finally got around to reading this one. I could talk about this book all day. In short, the book is about how we need to find more time to just do nothing and not fill every minute of our schedules, and most importantly, we need to stop overworking ourselves for no good reason.
I’m a workaholic, but it’s because I have to be. The economy sucks. The wealth gap is insane. The current form of capitalism isn’t working for most of us. So, when I picked up this book, I was ready to argue with it from start to finish, but Celeste shut me up pretty quick. Throughout the book, she discusses that not all of us can choose to work less, and she dedicates some time toward the end of the book to discuss some political changes that must be made so we can work less.
Overall, I think my favorite part of the book is when she explains how most of us think we’re busier than we are. The reality is, and it’s backed by research, most of us waste insane amounts of time during the day. For example, messing around on social media or slacking at work and then realizing you have to catch up doesn’t mean you’re overworked. I’m one of the busiest people I know, and I still have a ton of free time. When I work with people on their time issues, we always find where they waste a bunch of time. Celeste discusses some ways she was able to stop cutting out some of these time wasters in her life.
Lastly, I also loved how she discussed how we love telling people how busy we are because it’s become a sort of status signal to others. This is something we all need to stop doing because it’s only encouraging others to stay busy and work themselves to death (and yes, I know I just mentioned how busy I am above, but it was to prove a point about how much free time I have as well, so chill).
This is a fantastic book, and I really hope more people read it. Even though I already do some of the tips from this book, I was introduced to new research and also gained some new tools for living a less stressful life.
I’m a workaholic, but it’s because I have to be. The economy sucks. The wealth gap is insane. The current form of capitalism isn’t working for most of us. So, when I picked up this book, I was ready to argue with it from start to finish, but Celeste shut me up pretty quick. Throughout the book, she discusses that not all of us can choose to work less, and she dedicates some time toward the end of the book to discuss some political changes that must be made so we can work less.
Overall, I think my favorite part of the book is when she explains how most of us think we’re busier than we are. The reality is, and it’s backed by research, most of us waste insane amounts of time during the day. For example, messing around on social media or slacking at work and then realizing you have to catch up doesn’t mean you’re overworked. I’m one of the busiest people I know, and I still have a ton of free time. When I work with people on their time issues, we always find where they waste a bunch of time. Celeste discusses some ways she was able to stop cutting out some of these time wasters in her life.
Lastly, I also loved how she discussed how we love telling people how busy we are because it’s become a sort of status signal to others. This is something we all need to stop doing because it’s only encouraging others to stay busy and work themselves to death (and yes, I know I just mentioned how busy I am above, but it was to prove a point about how much free time I have as well, so chill).
This is a fantastic book, and I really hope more people read it. Even though I already do some of the tips from this book, I was introduced to new research and also gained some new tools for living a less stressful life.