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

It's a quick read, but I got quite a bit out of this book. Despite covering a quirky range of subjects, Headlee writes engagingly and did a great job of wrapping it all up at the end. I have to admit, this did make me question my ideas about "being productive all the time" in my personal life.

I still believe in having personal projects, but I'm making more of an effort to include intentional down time (laying on the couch with a book).

Also, if you weren't already questioning the way we structure our work days (really?), this ought to do the trick.

It's sub-title is "How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving," so I'm underwhelmed that Headlee spent three-quarters of the book describing her take on why we feel overworked, and only one-quarter talking, superficially, how to break away.

I got this book specifically for the "How to" portion of the title!

Anyway, my hot mess of a summary is: we feel overworked because we're not connected to our needs to leisure and connection to other people. And we got here in large part because those capitalist jerks in charge made us work longer hours after they starting owning the means of production. Then those same capitalist jerks realized that there's money to be made making us lowly folk want to buy things (in other words, we were all happier and healthier when we were consumerist robots). And when it really comes down to it, we could all do just fine with four hours of work each day, everything that needs to be produced could be within those hours, and those capitalist pigs could survive fine, too.

I find it odd that Headlee mentions most sociological research is conducted by and on western white society, but then uses that research to uphold her thoughts and conclusions. I felt I was reading a very cherry-picked view of the world. I'm curious how other cultures view work. What about the phenomenon of Japanese salary-men? How does that fit the narrative that Headlee describes that overwork is a very western invention?

The most off-putting thing is how often Headlee comes to a conclusion based on her own experiences. They're interesting, and they've worked for her, but I'm not convinced a research group of one really has my hopes set on fire that I can emulate Headlee's actions and do fine.

To wrap up, this book failed to avoid over-promising its premise, and under-delivering the goods to help people move away from overwork. If you are looking for a book to do that, this isn't it.