Do Nothing

I listened to a book on the CloudLibrary App that I really enjoyed, Do Nothing by Celeste
Headlee. It is not so much a book about doing nothing at all, but more a book about how to have
more fulfilling, productive time, which turns out to be less time working. Celeste outlines the
history of our American work ethic and paints a grim picture of the 40-hour work week, a work
week which has morphed into so many new and interesting forms over the last year and a half
of lock down.

So many of us have had to rethink and invent new ways of working, be it either working
remotely or starting a new job entirely. This book gave an interesting view of how we actually
are only truly productive certain hours a day, and that the traditional work week just doesn’t ring
true for anyone anymore. Celeste also empowers the reader with strategies to map out how
much time you actually work. There’s no guilt about work, we all put plenty of pressure on
ourselves as it is, so that made listening to this title all the better. She tells us that we all are
doing our best and doing that good work doesn’t take as much time as you may think.

Having had my life tipped and tossed around like so many of us, it was encouraging to listen to
her words about how we work and how to find the best way to work. We all spend so much of
our time at work, and we all want to do the best we can at it and she makes it feel like we can
and are doing our best.