Do Nothing

Everyone should read this book. There's so much information presented in this book. Information was organized and well presented; it was easy to follow.

Some interesting research and statistics but nothing insightful or new that hasn't been said before.

Kinda think everyone should read this book! It starts with an eye-opening history of labor and the work week and then makes you have a crisis about work/life balance and capitalism

Once again, the right book has come along at just the right moment. I am personally struggling with work life balance. Shelter in Place gave me, for the first time since I started working at the age of 12 with babysitting jobs, a few uninterrupted days off. I never even really got maternity leave. So, now that I am back to work (40 hours) on site, I'm struggling a bit with some major, major life questions.
Headlee attempts to shed some light on some of these same questions I have been pondering. The first bit, which I loved was a kind of history of work and how the 40 hour work week has come about. Then she dissects the mental and physical effects this is having on us personally and culturally. Finally she gives us some goals to shoot for if (like me) you are over it. There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. It's up to the reader to absorb what she is saying and to use it or not. I'm closing this book with a better understanding of what I have been picking up on-and perhaps lacked to words to name or describe in detail.
It's important to note, and Headlee states it over and over again, that a person's life can be completely changed UP TO A CERTAIN INCOME LEVEL by money, after that money cannot bring happiness. I too lived paycheck to paycheck for many years and the stress over not having enough to pay the bills far outweighed any stress I was sweating about my true purpose in life. This book will not lay out a system of how to reach that level. Headlee credits the sheer luck that one of her TED talks went viral as to why she is still not in that spiral. This is not a how-to book, it is more of a here is why book.

You don't need a whole book to tell you that overworking yourself can lead to health problems and stress you the f*ck out entirely. Less work and more leisure time would be awesome. Everyone knows that.

Still some good points and some interesting bits on the history of work. 2/5