I Didn't Do The Thing Today: On letting go of productivity guilt

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Even on days when we get a lot done, the thing left undone can leave us feeling guilty, anxious, or disappointed. Even on days where we get a lot done, the thing left undone can leave us feeling guilty, anxious, or disappointed. We don’t know where our decisions will lead, because we can only connect the dots once we’re looking back. i'd meander through the book like you might do when hiking outdoors, letting your attention settle on whatever captures it. It made it read like an academic paper, with the appropriate quote coming after the statement to justify it.

A bonus star because it gave me the strength and inner peace to Let Go of Productivity Guilt and stop reading halfway through. Creativity is a vibrant, expansive, rewarding measure of our days compared to the rigidity of productivity. We are imperfect and bound to waste time: we put things off, become distracted, chit-chat too long with colleagues. If I had a quarter for every time the author uses the words, “we,” “our,” or “us,” I could live off that for a few months. It’s present in the ways we get to know ourselves, express ourselves, question what we believe, and discover what we want—it’s in how we live our lives.

There’s the work thing, the catch-up thing, the laundry thing, the creative thing, the exercise thing, the family thing, the thing we don’t want to do, the thing we’ve been putting off (despite it being the most important thing).

There’s nothing inherently wrong with being productive—we all need to get things done—but when we conflate productivity with self-worth, we never measure up. Madeleine Dore has produced a book that is both practical and inspiring; that recognises the tensions in life, that we can’t always do all the things, but also that sometimes those things are still important. i believe any person reading the book in this way will encounter ways to feel more meaning, focus, grace and appreciation in life. This is a series of chapters which contain both wise advice, kind words and a realistic recognition of the struggles we all face. Beyond being thought-provoking and well-organized, it gets bonus points for not making up a new word every page (like most self-help books) and instead relying on well-established terms.Occasionally I get an audiobook from the library in a futile attempt to restrict my book purchasing. Whether it’s romance, friendships, career paths, or new interests, we never saw most of the things that give our lives meaning coming. Additionally (and this is probably nitpicking), the word "infallible" was used incorrectly a few times in the book when I believe she meant to talk about the fallibility of humans, and that was confusing. Packed full of thoughtful and thought-invoking quotes and passing on lived experiences of not having to be a Productivity Powerhouse all the time; you can just be a human too.

and i'll have to say i'm baffled by some of the harsh reviews - it seems like there's frustration about the incorporation of quotes and pulling together other information - the desire for listicles and shortform over a book?To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. While this book wasn’t completely life-changing, it was a good read that did inspire me to shift my thinking on productivity. The guilt is so much worse than the actual not-doing-of-the-thing, and Madeleine Dore breaks down the issue with empathy. she's not proclaiming herself as a productivity or unproductivity expert - she's more of an explorer. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.