Bookworm: Do Nothing

Busy doesn’t mean better, argues Celeste Headlee.

Where have I heard of Headlee before?

Celeste Headlee is a speaker, journalist, writer and radio host. She’s author of the award-winning We Need To Talk, based on her super-popular TED Talk ‘10 ways to have a better conversation’ – which has 26m views and counting.

What’s this book’s main premise?

We’ve always imagined the future of work would involve a lot more leisure time, enabled by everything from flying cars to friendly robots. Yet now we find ourselves working harder not smarter, stuck in a cycle of constant striving which is leaving us feeling lonely and anxious.

In Do Nothing, Celeste Headlee seeks to tackle this cycle of self-sabotage head on, by setting out ways to ‘break away from overworking, overdoing, and underliving’. Her aim is to show us that we can not only recover our leisure time but also reverse a trend that is making us sadder, sicker, and less productive – not just individually, but on a global scale.

What are the barriers to doing nothing?

Headlee argues that we have fallen victim to a cult of efficiency, which tells us that busy means better.

Cultural perspectives such as ‘working harder means getting ahead’ – central to the so-called American dream – suggest that effort and perseverance are always rewarded. Yet the distribution of wealth tells a very different story; it’s bosses not workers who are getting richer. Add advertising into the mix and the idea that we must all work longer hours, to earn more money, to buy more things is further amplified.

No wonder we feel guilty about the whole idea of taking ‘leisure time’.

Could you give a tangible example?

Headlee cites the example of an experiment run at UCLA and the University of Toronto, which throws light on how – by rewarding workers for the hours we put in – we have skewed our view of leisure time, and more specifically, its ‘value’.

The researchers broke the sample into two groups and asked each to listen to a short piece of music. But before listening, the members of one group were asked to estimate their hourly wage. The results showed that simply reminding participants of the financial value of their time resulted in them being significantly more eager for the music to end.

Headlee likens this to the concept of ‘polluted time’; time that should be devoted to the things we enjoy but is instead sullied by thoughts of what we should be doing, such as answering emails or returning calls. And this has been exacerbated by factors such as flexi-time and hybrid working which blur the boundaries between time on and time off.

What about some practical tips?

Keep a time log.

Headlee suggests that by keeping a log of our activities, we can improve our time perception and focus on freeing up a chunk of time each day to invest in quality idleness – having a bath, reading a book, pottering about, whatever we like…

Replace emojis with real-life engagement.

Rather than relying on Facetime, we should aim to see friends and family members face-to-face – or at least speak to them, so that we can establish more meaningful connections.

Ditch the idea of ‘quality time’.

This simply piles on the pressure to always do something meaningful and memorable when we’re with our loved ones. Instead, we should be happy to go with the flow.

What wider lessons can I take from this?

Our obsession with efficiency and productivity has led us to underestimate the power of leisure in creating a joyful and fulfilling life. Rather than being time wasted, taking time out can feed our creativity, enable reflective thought, and provide us with the opportunity for social connection. It can even strengthen our immune system.

We should therefore look at our ‘productive’ behaviours through the lens of our long-term goals. This will enable us to identify and ditch the behaviours which are not really helping us and to find more time for ‘doing nothing’.

What am I most likely to say after reading this book?

 “We don’t need to monetise every minute.”

What am I least likely to say after reading this book?  

“My work is my worth.”