I Didn't Do The Thing Today
Predictable
Repetitive
Dry

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

Madeleine Dore โ€” 2022
An antidote to our obsession with busyness, author Madeleine Dore explores the joys of releasing ourselves from the burden of productivity guilt. 'A radical masterpiece ... While many books insist on changing your life, this one invites you to deepen and expand it.' - Mari Andrew, author of My Inner Sky 'Deep, thoughtful, gently instructive, nourishing.' - Clare Bowditch, author of Your Own Kind Of Girl 'Read it and sigh with relief.' - Hugh Mackay, author of The Kindness Revolution Any given day brings a never-ending list of things to do. 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). Even on days when we get a lot done, the thing left undone can leave us feeling guilty, anxious or disappointed. After five years of searching for the secret to productivity, Madeleine Dore discovered there isn't one-instead, we're being set up to fail. I Didn't Do the Thing Today is an inspiring call to take productivity off its pedestal, to embrace the joyful messiness and unpredictability of life. For anyone who has ever felt the pressure to do more, be more, achieve more, this antidote to our doing-obsession is the permission slip we all need to find our own way.
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Reviews

Photo of reann
reann@reann
3 stars
Jan 13, 2024

Lots of references from different people which actually proves that you are not the only one /not doing the thing today/ !! There are books meant to be read at an irregular intervals of time or even days, and this is one of those. It has great quotes, anecdotes and little reminders that is delightful to read but there are also too much references and infos sprinkled all over it. I go one chapter per every other day and thatโ€™s how I recommend reading it. Also recommending it most to the burnout creatives (like myself) out there. hi i see u ๐Ÿฅฒ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ๐Ÿซถ๐Ÿผ

Photo of Jenn Doan
Jenn Doan @jennnn
2 stars
Jan 11, 2023

didn't thoroughly enjoy and it took me 4 months to finish this one, ironically.

Photo of James Bedford
James Bedford@james
2 stars
Mar 6, 2022

I really wanted to like this - love the message. But I found this a very very slow and hard read.

+3
Photo of Cameron Frost
Cameron Frost@cameronfrost
4 stars
Jan 19, 2025
Photo of Ash Hoe
Ash Hoe@ash
1.5 stars
Feb 2, 2024
+5
Photo of dontblink
dontblink@dontblink
5 stars
Sep 6, 2022
Photo of Sierra Van Ryck deGroot
Sierra Van Ryck deGroot@sierravrd
5 stars
Sep 2, 2022
Photo of Sabine Ballata
Sabine Ballata@sab
5 stars
Jun 25, 2022
Photo of Karolina
Karolina@fox
2 stars
Feb 26, 2022
+4
Photo of Anna
Anna@helloannie
4 stars
Jan 21, 2022
Photo of Riel Reyes
Riel Reyes@rielr
3 stars
Apr 11, 2024
Photo of Julien Sobczak
Julien Sobczak@julien-sobczak
4 stars
Apr 3, 2024
Photo of Alice
Alice@4l1c3
4 stars
Feb 15, 2024
Photo of Gia Palamos
Gia Palamos@giapalamos
4 stars
Mar 25, 2023

Highlights

Photo of rachel ๐Ÿš
rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

As Hans Christian Andersen wrote, โ€˜The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to seeing them that we call them ordinary things.โ€™

Page 254
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

To find something to be curious aboutโ€”to learn somethingโ€”can bring shimmer back to our days. As the novelist TH. White wrote in The Once and Future King, "The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails.โ€

Page 252
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

After all, isn't it the people in our lives rather than the things that are of utmost importance? Perhaps that's one way we can all be day artists-we may not be able to shape our day entirely the way we might hope, but we can shape the way we love. As Vincent van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother Theo in 1888, "The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.โ€

Page 248
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

As the artist and author Austin Kleon told me, we do need to sand off our edges. โ€˜Weโ€™re so obsessed with life-hacking and with becoming these productive, shining examples of ourselves, but so much of good creative work comes from being a person that has tensions in their life.โ€™ For Austin, this means embracing his โ€˜deeply lazy' side as well as his driven workaholic side. 'For a long time, I thought I had to pick one side, but I've realised itโ€™s sometimes bouncing between these two modes that really gives my life meaning- I dont feel the work would be meaningful if I didnโ€™t have those deeply lazy moments, too.โ€™

Page 234
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

I'm reminded of the words of writer Maya Angelou: โ€˜Ive learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.โ€™

Page 114
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

This is where the key Hferences between a happy lite and a meaningful life are drawnโ€”rather than the emphasis being on whether a given experience is good or bad, it's about the intensity of such experiences. This is because intensity prompts contemplation, which is where we create meaning.

Page 97
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

As the British novelist and thinker C.S. Lewis supposedly once observed, โ€˜Isnโ€™t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?โ€™

Page 86
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

Whereas ambition fixates on external recognition โ€” that proverbial gold star drive is rooted in what we do and how we do it.

Page 73
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

I'm fond of the author Robert Dessaix's description of time as a 'splodge'. As he wrote in his memoir What Days Are For, 'A liberating way to view time, I find, is as splodges lying in clusters all around me. Instead of hopping obediently from link to link along a chain towards extinction, I pause in a puddle of it here and wallow in a pool of it there.

Page 53
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

If 'time is how you spend your love, as Zadie Smith wrote in On Beauty, then perhaps itโ€™s worth asking how we can manage our love, rather than our time.

Page 51
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

We can turn our attention to what we want from the hour, rather than what the hour wants from us.

Page 45
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rachel ๐Ÿš@rae

If productivity narrows our days, creativity expands them.

Page 19