Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving

ISBN: 1984824732

Author: Headlee, Celeste

Condition: Used

A welcome antidote to our toxic hustle culture of burnout.-Arianna HuffingtonThis book is so important and could truly save lives.-Elizabeth GilbertA clarion call to work smarter [and] accomplish more by doing less.-Adam GrantWe 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 cant 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, were searching for external solutions to an internal problem. We wont find what were 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. Its time to reverse the trend thats making us all sadder, sicker, and less productive, and return to a way of life that allows us to thrive.