Do Nothing

 

Check out this book, recently published. It's really changing how I look at my daily life and my relationship with my smart phone and how much time I spend on it.  This is not a soft self-help kind of book and there are few references to mindfulness which has been almost completely corporatized/capitalized into something almost unrecognizable from traditional Buddhist philosophy. 

Instead, this book is a wholistic view of work both at home and in the world that combines psychology, history (ancient and modern) culture, health, and society. Our daily lives have changed more in the last two hundred years than it has in the last 20,000 years and we have not caught up to the technology we have and the demands it places on our brains.

Celeste Headlee makes a real case through statistics and research as to why we feel busier than ever but get less done, feel more stressed and having less fun. 

Rather than extolling on the virtues of life hacking and habit building, she takes a comprehensive view of how we have evolved to live, work and socialize.  Social Media and "always being on" is only the latest in a long history of layering longer working hours, less productive outcomes, and less leisure time. 

As I listened to this audiobook, all I could think of was "this isn't just me, this is happening to all of us, and here's why and...it's not my fault." 

Frequently I asked myself...is this how I want to live? 

There is more journalism than aphorisms that is very supportive in thinking about the world differently and what I want out of it. I think more and more literature is going to come out like this, and I have already gotten a taste of some of the same sets of facts from another book I have on reserve that I listened to the podcast on NPR...but for now, check out this 7 minute listen with the author herself.

Do Nothing Interview

I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you do end up reading it or listening to it, reach out to me and we can talk about how we are trying to make some changes. I've already implemented a couple. 

Also as I drafted this I remembered a similar podcast interview I came across about new year's resolutions. I posted it on Facebook but I'll repost it here. I listened to a book by Gretchen Rubin, but it was exhausting. I'm a big fan of R. Eric Thomas, and loved his book Here For It. I think he makes some good counterpoints in this interview.