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. 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. We won’t find what we’re searching for in punishing diets, productivity apps, or the latest self-improvement schemes.

As it turns out, we’re searching for external solutions to an internal problem. 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. Why do we measure our time in terms of efficiency instead of meaning? Why can’t we just take a break? 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. So why are we so miserable?ĭespite 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 work feverishly to make ourselves happy.

“A clarion call to work smarter accomplish more by doing less.”-Adam Grant

“This book is so important and could truly save lives.”-Elizabeth Gilbert “A welcome antidote to our toxic hustle culture of burnout.”-Arianna Huffington

Do nothing by celeste headlee