Do Nothing: How To Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
We work feverishly to make ourselves happy. So why are we so miserable? This manifesto helps us break free of our unhealthy devotion to efficiency and shows us how to reclaim our time and humanity with a little more leisure.
Despite our constant search for new ways to “hack” 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 or productivity apps.
Celeste’s strategies will allow you to regain control over your life and break your addiction to false efficiency. You’ll learn how to increase your time perception to determine how your hours are being spent, invest in quality idle time, and focus on end goals instead of mean goals. 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.
“A powerful case that productivity is not an inherent virtue—if you’re not careful, it can become a vice. If you’ve ever felt compelled to work harder, this book by a longtime radio host and journalist is a clarion call to work smarter instead, because sometimes you accomplish more by doing less.” — Adam Grant, bestselling author of Originals, and Give and Take.
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Praise For Do Nothing
“This book is so important and could truly save lives. Despite working harder than ever, people have never been more depressed, anxious, and unhappy. Without a doubt, our modern way of life is not working. In fact, it’s killing us. But what is to be done? With intelligence and compassion, Headlee presents realistic solutions for how we can reclaim our health and our humanity from a technological revolution that seems hell-bent on destroying both. I’m so grateful to have read this book. It delivers on its promise of a better life.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert,
“Do Nothing is a welcome antidote to our toxic hustle culture of burnout.”
– Arianna Huffington
“I have read a lot of self-help and social psychology books, and very few have made me reconsider the very foundation of how I approach my time as much as this one. A nuanced, thoughtful exploration of the history of work and the cult of productivity along with concrete ideas and suggestions for changing how we operate on a day-to-day basis. Do read, very good.”
– Kerry McHugh
