She also served as co-host of the national morning news show, The Takeaway, from PRI and WNYC, and anchored presidential coverage in 2012 for PBS World Channel. In her 20-year career in public radio, Celeste has been the Executive Producer of On Second Thought at Georgia Public Broadcasting and anchored programs including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, Here and Now, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Her TEDx Talk, 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation, has been viewed over 26 million times. Her latest is Speaking of Race: Why Everyone Needs to Talk About Racism and How to Do It. Read moreĬeleste Headlee is an internationally recognized journalist and radio host, professional speaker and author of bestselling book We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, and Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving. It’s time to reverse the trend that’s making us all sadder, sicker, and less productive, and return to a way of life that allows us to thrive. Her research reveals that the habits we cling to are doing us harm they developed recently in human history, which means they are habits that can, and must, be broken. 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

Celeste headlee book do nothing