PDF Summary:Do Nothing, by Celeste Headlee

In today’s fast-paced world, our lives increasingly revolve around productivity, efficiency, and work. It’s now normal for many people to answer emails during dinner and pack their days with as many tasks as possible. Yet in Do Nothing, radio journalist Celeste Headlee argues that by trying to do too much, people are working less efficiently because the human brain isn’t designed to multitask or work without rest. In addition, the culture of overworking has led to worse health outcomes and increased social isolation.

So if all this work isn’t serving us, how can we end an addiction to productivity? And if not work, what should we be doing? Headlee’s solution is to embrace true leisure—doing things just for the fun of it. In this guide, we’ll explain the historical origins of the modern work addiction, how it impacts society, and what you can do to live a healthier life. We’ll also supplement Headlee’s ideas with more context on global labor trends and tips from other wellness and productivity experts.

(continued)...

Lastly, there are many identity-based factors that may influence whether people fall into Headlee’s category of those who don’t overwork because they’re unemployed or underemployed. These include gender, physical ability, race, and more.

Time Feels Scarce and Too Valuable to Squander

Although people aren’t working longer hours on average compared to the Industrial Revolution era, they still feel exhausted and overworked. Headlee says this is partly because as someone’s hourly wage or salary goes up, their time becomes more valuable. And because time is more valuable, it also feels more scarce. Thus, people feel anxiety at the prospect of wasting time by not doing something productive.

The Psychology of Scarcity

Headlee doesn’t quite explain why time feels scarce as its monetary value goes up, but studies demonstrate that the reverse is true: When something is scarce, and therefore more difficult to acquire, people attribute a higher value to it. Therefore, Headlee might be implying that this association works both ways for people psychologically—if something has a high monetary value, people assume it must be because it’s in short supply.

Research also supports the idea that regardless of how many hours you’re working, the feeling of time scarcity is enough to derail your mental well-being and schedule. In Scarcity, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir explain that feeling stressed about not having enough time decreases your mental bandwidth, which makes you more likely to make bad decisions about time management. For example, you might procrastinate on cleaning your house, even though you know it will take longer if you put it off. This causes a negative spiral as you accumulate more things to do and feel increasingly stressed about the scarcity of time.

As a result, the urge to be productive spills over into people’s non-professional lives, so even when people aren’t at work, they feel like they should be still pursuing self-improvement or self-advancement. This means that activities that should be relaxing, like meditating, often become tiresome and stressful because people overanalyze the activity with an app, or post it on social media to impress others. In other words, activities turn into work when they’re goal-oriented instead of being done just for the sake of enjoying life in that moment.

(Shortform note: One counterargument to this idea is that being productive can also be a way to cope with negative feelings and stress rather than a cause of them. Psychologists say that because productivity releases endorphins (hormones that make you feel good), it can be a good way to boost your mood and confidence. However, experts also warn that you can stay busy to an unhealthy extent, which will exacerbate the negative feelings you were trying to avoid in the first place. This suggests that it’s important to strike a balance between being productive to cope with stress and giving yourself a break from productivity to process the sources of that stress.)

Chasing Economic Advancement and Social Status

Headlee argues that another reason behind the modern obsession with work is the pressure to achieve a more luxurious lifestyle by working hard and making more money. As we mentioned in the first section, the narrative of the worker who gets rich by never taking a day off dates back over a hundred years. The problem with this, Headlee says, is that social media causes people to chase ever more glamorous lives as they compare themselves not only to the people around them but to the billionaires and millionaires that take up a disproportionate amount of media space.

(Shortform note: Psychologists affirm Headlee’s argument that social media exacerbates the negative aspects of social comparison—instead of feeling inspired to improve something about yourself when looking at social media, you’re more likely to suffer a drop in self-esteem because you only ever see the highly curated, best parts of other people’s lives. Some tips to avoid the negative effects of social comparison are to compare your current self to your past self to reflect on your progress, focus on gratitude for what you have, identify strengths that you have in common with others, and limit your social media time.)

Headlee also points to capitalism and the psychology behind consumerism as driving forces behind the compulsion to work more to buy things. To keep the economy growing, people have to keep spending money, so the marketing industry continues to put enormous amounts of resources into making people feel like they need to buy products to be happy.

Headlee notes that psychologically, people do get a boost of happiness when they get something new. Unfortunately, when the novelty wears off, they need another new thing to feel that joy again, so what someone has never feels like enough. The same vicious cycle occurs with people’s salaries as a result of what psychologists call the “hedonic treadmill”—the phenomenon in which humans go back to a baseline level of happiness after something good (or bad) happens.

(Shortform note: Although the cultural pressure to buy new things has been part of the global culture since the Industrial Era, data suggest that consumerism in the US is higher than ever. Some experts point to several driving factors behind increased spending: the ease of digital shopping and the ability to impulsively buy things anywhere, at any time, as well as the constant exposure to digital advertising. Psychologists recommend resisting the trappings of consumerism and the hedonic treadmill by keeping a gratitude journal and doing altruistic and meaningful activities like volunteering.)

Women Experience Additional Pressures

Headlee also argues that women are disproportionately burdened by the modern work culture because they’re expected to do more unpaid domestic labor (such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare), often while working outside of the home for less pay on average. Headlee writes that women with children tend to be paid less than women without children, while the opposite is true for men. This means that many women have more economic pressure and more family duties to juggle on top of the cultural expectations to be ultra-productive at work and outside of work.

(Shortform note: Research shows that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated this unequal distribution of labor in many households. One global study found that women did three times as much additional childcare compared to men in 2020. This widened the existing income gap since many women had to work less or stop working to care for their children.)

The Negative Consequences of Working Too Much

Now that we’ve described the nature of the modern work culture, we’ll explain how working too much becomes counterproductive in many ways. Headlee argues that the work-obsessed culture has led to lower efficiency, worse mental and physical health, and an unhealthy addiction to technology.

Lower Efficiency

One of the main ways people try to fit more into the day is by multitasking—for example, responding to emails and text messages as they come in while also working on writing a report and scrolling through social media. Yet Headlee says that instead of getting more done at once, people take more time to do each task than it would take if they focused on one thing at a time. This is because despite our best efforts, the human brain isn’t capable of multitasking. Instead, we take extra time constantly switching between different tasks.

(Shortform note: In The One Thing, Gary Keller explains that task-switching itself can become addictive because you get a little jolt of dopamine—a feel-good brain chemical—each time you shift your attention toward a new task. In addition to the decreased efficiency in work contexts that Headlee points out, Keller notes that multitasking in social situations can erode your personal relationships, and multitasking while driving can be extremely dangerous. His key advice to counteract the downsides of multitasking is to focus on doing the one thing that matters most at a given moment. For example, if you’re hanging out with friends, focus on enjoying quality time with them rather than glancing at phone notifications.)

In addition to trying to multitask, people often work long hours, thinking they’ll get more accomplished or impress their boss by showing how hard they work. However, Headlee says that although many companies measure productivity by work hours, research shows that people work more efficiently when they work fewer hours and take frequent breaks. This is because people can only do about an hour of focused work at a time on average.

(Shortform note: Some experts suggest that the number of productive work hours you can put in also depends on the type of work you do. One article asserts that if you’re doing more repetitive work, your productivity maxes out at 40 hours per week, but if you’re doing creative work, it tops out at 20 hours per week. This suggests that even with breaks, there are limits to the amount of work you can do before there are diminishing returns on your effort. To account for the counterintuitive relationship between work hours and productivity, some experts suggest measuring employee productivity based on things like objectives achieved in a given time period.)

And, Headlee adds, we tend to make a task length stretch to the amount of time available to do it. Therefore, working long hours can lead to inefficiencies like taking a whole workday to complete a task that could have been done in a few hours (with breaks in between) if given a strict stopping point. (Shortform note: Research also suggests that setting challenging time parameters for your work improves efficiency because it causes physiological arousal (such as an increased heart rate) that motivates a boost in effort. However, too much stress around the time constraint can backfire and cause a decline in productivity.)

Worse Mental and Physical Health

Although many people state that they enjoy work or they feel better when they’re being productive, Headlee counters that this is partly due to the cultural conditioning that shames people into working hard, when the reality is that overworking has a negative impact on people’s mental and physical health. (Shortform note: Some experts posit that being passionate about your work and enjoying your work make you more susceptible to burnout (mental and physical exhaustion). This is because you’re more likely to think that you can and should be working all the time—you rationalize that it doesn’t really feel like work and that the output is meaningful to you. Many studies suggest that regardless of your motivations to work hard, you can overdo it.)

Headlee cites research that says that half of all visits to the doctor in the US are linked to stress-related health problems, and Headlee attributes this trend to the rise in work and productivity-related stress. Research indicates that feeling stressed about not having enough time can lead to insomnia, anxiety, lower levels of happiness, and obesity. In contrast, companies that reduce work hours tend to maintain productivity while improving the emotional and physical health of their employees.

(Shortform note: Rather than focusing on working less due to the link between work stress and poor health, some researchers point to ways we can improve jobs to make them less conducive to stress-related illness. For example, experts assert that jobs support employees' well-being when workers have agency over their decisions, can develop and use new skills, and work in a supportive and respectful environment. Therefore, managing both the quality and quantity of work might be an effective approach to improving your health.)

Unhealthy Technology Usage

Another downside of prioritizing productivity above all else is that it tends to make technologies that enable productivity—like smartphones—an integral part of people’s day-to-day lives. Headlee argues that this, in turn, has a slew of negative consequences.

One major impact of the frequent use of technology is that it allows work to seep into people’s personal lives when they’re off the clock. Smartphones and laptops enable people to stay connected 24/7, and as a result, there’s more pressure to respond to work emails and phone calls even when someone is meant to be enjoying time off. This means that there’s less separation between on-the-job time and off-time, and many people feel like they can never fully relax.

(Shortform note: A counterargument to these points is that technology also provides benefits such as the flexibility to work from home and adapt your work schedule to your other needs. For example, by working from home, you could spend less time commuting to work and more time with your family. To preserve these benefits and keep technology from interrupting your personal life, some experts recommend techniques to establish boundaries between work time and off-time even if you work from home. For example, try doing a daily routine when you start and stop work to delineate the transition and having a specific physical area that you use for work (and if possible, closing the door to your office after hours).)

Another impact of the constant use of technology is that it interferes with sleep patterns because the blue light emitted from screens tricks your brain into thinking that it’s daytime (and therefore time to be alert). This hinders the release of the hormone melatonin, which helps you sleep.

In addition, Headlee says that digital device notifications stimulate a physiological fight-or-flight response, which releases stress hormones. Simply having your smartphone near you, and therefore having the possibility of receiving a notification, can distract you from being present.

Lastly, Headlee writes that the frequent use of social media is (ironically) causing social isolation. Instead of having deeper relationships with a smaller circle of friends, people are replacing those relationships with an overwhelming number of superficial, digital connections. Headlee says that a person’s social media network tends to include too many people to genuinely empathize and keep in contact with. In addition, the digital interactions are less intimate than in-person and vocal interactions, so the countless digital exchanges that people have daily are less emotionally gratifying.

Attention Economy in the Age of Information

In How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell links these negative effects of technology to the rise of the attention economy, or the monetization of people’s attention through apps, social media, ad-supported websites, and so on. Unlike the process of industrialization, which Headlee argues led to a change in the type and amount of work people were doing, we’re now in a period of de-industrialization in which economies are shifting away from manufacturing and toward a knowledge- and service-based economy.

As a result, companies profit not only from people’s labor and purchases of physical items but also from holding people’s attention as long as possible. Spending excessive amounts of time on technology then exacerbates the problems that Headlee describes: sleep disruption, physiological stress responses to notifications, increased digital communication, and more social isolation.

Some of Odell’s practical tips for resisting the attention economy include spending time in nature, learning about the local history of where you live, and taking the time to get to know your neighbors. She also warns that doing a temporary detox or getaway from technology might help reduce your stress in the short term, but it doesn’t eliminate the mindset of viewing time and attention in terms of monetary value. Therefore, it’s also important to increase your awareness of how companies manipulate your attention and resist the urge to monetize your free time.

How to Live a Healthier Life

Given the negative consequences of a productivity-obsessed culture—the inefficiency and the tolls it takes on people’s minds and bodies—Headlee concludes that working more than we need to support ourselves simply isn’t good for us. She explains that she experienced many years of struggling financially as a single mother, and even when her career started to provide financial stability and the flexibility of self-employment, it wasn’t enough to relieve her stress around work and time. She realized that it wasn’t her boss or her smartphone that fundamentally caused her problem but the cultural norms and expectations that encouraged her to willfully overwork herself.

(Shortform note: Headlee’s personal experience aligns with data showing that people who are self-employed tend to work more on average than people who aren’t. In addition to the cultural pressure Headlee refers to, this may also be because their earnings are more directly tied to the time they put into their work as opposed to someone who has a fixed salary or hourly rate.)

Based on her own experience making positive changes to the way she lives and works, Headlee advises on how to live a healthier life—with ample leisure and social connection—by being more intentional about how you spend your time (she refers to these tidbits of advice as “life-backs,” as a play on the phrase “life hacks”).

(Shortform note: Although Headlee focuses on leisure and social connection as avenues for healthful living—especially for people who are overworking—many wellness experts differ in their view of what people need to achieve a healthy life. For example, in Ikigai, Héctor García and Francesc Miralles draw inspiration from the Okinawan people of Japan to define a set of guidelines for a long and happy life. They recommend practicing mindfulness techniques to decrease stress, doing mental exercises to revitalize the mind, doing physical exercises such as yoga and tai chi, and improving your diet by eating less food and more varied food.)

Change Your Mindset

The first way to improve your mindset around productivity and time is to increase your awareness of how you spend your time. Headlee says that by keeping a log of how you spend your day, you’re likely to discover that you have more time than you thought you had to get everything done. Realizing that you do have enough time to get all the essentials done will greatly reduce your stress levels and anxiety around time. It might also help you pinpoint aspects of your schedule you’d like to change—for example, if you notice that you spend far more time on social media or writing emails than you thought you did.

(Shortform note: In Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins recommends different approaches to changing your perspective on time to reduce anxiety. One technique is to change the time frame you’re thinking about when you’re feeling stressed. For example, when you’re overwhelmed by the tasks at hand in the present, shift your thoughts to the future (when you’ll have everything done). Or when you’re worried about the future, focus on what you can do proactively in the present. Robbins supplements strategies to change your mindset around time with time management strategies, such as prioritizing important tasks over urgent ones.)

The next mindset shift Headlee describes is focusing on larger goals rather than the steps you take to achieve the goals. She explains that we often get too caught up in a goal's metrics or stepping stones, to the point that we forget about the ultimate reason for doing something.

For example, perhaps you want to feel healthier, so you start a strict yoga class regimen. However, if missing a session makes you feel stressed, or you force yourself to go even when you don’t feel physically up for it, the activity can become counterproductive to your initial goal. Instead, it might be better for your health to keep the class schedule flexible and take days off when your body needs rest. Headlee says that while metrics can be helpful, remember that there are many ways of reaching a goal, so focus on what’s important to you in the long term.

(Shortform note: In the business industry, the phenomenon that Headlee describes is also referred to as “surrogation”—when you conflate a metric with your overall strategy. In this context, the company might have an overarching goal to improve customer satisfaction, which it decides to measure using customer surveys. However, if the metric itself becomes a high-stakes target for employees, it may lead to unethical behavior of falsifying data or could lead to employees pestering the customers to respond to surveys, which decreases customers’ satisfaction with the company. Some experts recommend avoiding this by using multiple metrics for each larger strategy and decreasing the link between incentives (such as bonuses) and metrics.)

Change Your Scheduling and Work Habits

Headlee's next tips are for changing your scheduling and work habits. Her first piece of advice is to do more focused work so that you can work fewer hours while getting the same amount done. If you have flexibility in your schedule, she recommends working for about 50 minutes at a time, followed by a short break to recharge.

(Shortform note: Headlee’s advice to work in 50-minute sessions with short breaks in between is similar to the Pomodoro technique of working in blocks of 25-minute focused work sessions followed by a 5 minute break, and then taking a longer 15 to 30 minute break after four of those cycles. In addition to working in shorter, more focused bursts, research suggests that you can work more efficiently by setting short deadlines for specific tasks. In Scarcity, Mullainathan and Sendhil explain that this is because we naturally work more effectively as a deadline looms. Thus, the combination of short deadlines and shorter working sessions could significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on a project or task.)

Headlee also recommends not working any more than your job requires, since the accompanying stress and exhaustion from being overworked isn’t worth the career-related benefits you may or may not get from it.

(Shortform note: Headlee’s advice to stop working optional hours is sometimes referred to as “quiet quitting”—a practice that many younger workers have adopted of reclaiming their time by not doing anything non-essential for work. Proponents of quiet quitting argue that it’s crucial for people to develop their sense of identity and self-worth outside of work. Some argue that the Covid-19 pandemic reinforced this principle as work became less social and less enjoyable for remote workers. A 2022 study suggests that about 50% of workers are quiet quitting, although others argue that this number isn’t much different from the last couple of decades.)

Another work-related tip is to work in groups when you can. Headlee says that although many people feel that working independently is more efficient, research suggests that diverse groups are more efficient at problem-solving and making optimal decisions compared to individuals. Thus, collaborating with others can save you time and produce better results.

(Shortform note: Headlee doesn’t specify what kind of diversity to strive for in your work groups, but some experts assert that cognitive diversity in particular facilitates efficient problem-solving. For example, it’s better to have a mix of people who prefer to synthesize the ideas of others and people who like to generate new ideas, rather than people who approach tasks in the same way.)

Lastly, create your dream schedule and include ample leisure time. Headlee says your dream schedule doesn’t have to be strictly followed, but writing it down will give you something to strive for. Remember to include leisure activities—anything that’s purely for enjoyment like going for a walk, reading outside, doing a craft, or playing music.

(Shortform note: If you’re not sure where to start with your leisurely dream schedule, in The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin offers advice for how to discover new opportunities for leisure. First, try keeping a log, where you record things that pique your interest—locations on a map to visit or new activities you’d like to try, for example. Second, peruse random magazines or listen to a new podcast to expose yourself to new topics that might inspire a hobby or pastime.)

Having these periods of rest is essential because it improves mental health and activates a state of mind known as the default mode network (DMN). The DMN activates when your brain isn’t working on a task, and in this state, we naturally process emotions and decisions, reflect on memories, think about how others feel, and daydream about the future. Headlee says that the DMN sparks creativity and growth since our brain is free to consider things from new angles.

(Shortform note: Similar to Headlee’s argument here, Chris Bailey’s Hyperfocus espouses the benefits of what he refers to as “intentional mind wandering.” He clarifies that in order to maximize these benefits—like creative ideas or plans about the future that this mental state inspires—it’s best to jot down any insights that occur to you so you can access them later. Otherwise, you may not remember the brilliant ideas you conjured while in the DMN.)

Change How You Interact With Others

Headlee’s next set of advice for achieving a healthier life centers around your interactions with others. First, avoid making unhealthy comparisons about your productivity. Headlee asserts that your perception of how busy other people are is likely inaccurate anyway since many people try to outdo one another when it comes to busyness. In addition, she says that comparing yourself to someone online can be unhealthy because they might have a lifestyle that’s unobtainable—like celebrities, for example—and the comparison is more likely to make you feel bad than it is to inspire you.

(Shortform note: One way to let go of damaging social comparison is to engage in creative activities. According to Brené Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection, doing activities like painting, drawing, creating new recipes, and writing fosters a sense of individuality and helps remind you of your unique skills (since no one will express things in quite the same way that you do).)

Another way to improve your well-being and avoid some of the pitfalls of overworking is to schedule social time and make an effort to interact in person with others. Headlee asserts that while many people use technology to avoid conversations and small talk with acquaintances and strangers, these small social interactions—like chatting with your mail carrier—improve your health and make you feel more relaxed. As we mentioned earlier, deeper relationships are also important, so set aside time to regularly catch up with friends and stay connected with loved ones.

(Shortform note: In Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport echoes Headlee’s assertion that in-person social time is crucial to well-being. However, given that technologies are integral to our lives, he argues that we can improve the impact of technology on our relationships by changing how we use devices to communicate. He recommends using text-based communication exclusively for planning and coordinating non-digital conversations and sharing simple logistic information. For example, instead of catching up with a friend via a messaging app, you would instead exchange messages to plan an in-person meetup.)

Headlee’s last recommendation is to do a small act of kindness every day to counteract the lack of social connection and mental-well being that overworking causes. This could include cooking a meal for someone, or something small like giving a sincere compliment. Acting kindly and generously toward others not only helps the recipient but also makes the person doing the act feel happier and less stressed. Headlee explains that humans are social creatures (we thrive in communities, not in isolation), so we evolved to receive psychological benefits from altruism, which increases social cohesion. Plus, these benefits have a ripple effect because the recipient is more likely to do something nice for someone else, too.

(Shortform note: Similar to the way altruism increases the chances of a community’s survival and provides mental health benefits, self-compassion improves an individual’s likelihood of survival due to its health benefits: One research study shows that acts of self-kindness lower your heart rate and reduce other bodily stress responses such as sweating, and this physical state of relaxation enables your body to heal faster.)