Do Nothing with Celeste Headlee (Part 1)

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell called it “the cult of efficiency”—the drive among high-performers to accomplish more, to be productive, to work. But lately that cult has been pushing more people to burnout and languishing. What’s going on? In evolutionary terms, the cult of efficiency is a recent invention that contradicts the way humans have survived for millennia, according to Celeste Headlee, author of the book, Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving. In part one of a special two-part episode, Headlee joins Dr. Jack Muskat, Medcan’s clinical director of mental health, to discuss how our culture became obsessed with productivity, and why we need to remember how to relax.

 

http://eatmovethinkpodcast.com/podcast/ep-73-do-nothing-with-celeste-headlee-part-one 

LINKS:

More on Headlee and her work at her website, and her book Do Nothing.

Here’s one of the interviews Headlee did, this one with NPR, leading up to the book’s launch. Ahd here’s one she did with Forbes.

Watch Headlee briefly break down the book here. 

She’s also given a TED Talk on how to have better conversations.

 

INSIGHTS

Burnout, which the World Health Organization recognizes as a syndrome, has six main drivers, Headlee says: Overworking, the sense that you are not in control, being underappreciated, some kind of breakdown in your workplace, unfair treatment and a disconnect between your skills, values and the work you are being paid to do. As the author notes, self-care won’t be able to address any of these things. Tied to this is the revelation that the life expectancy in the United States, at least, has fallen three years in a row. While working on her book, Headlee asked the researcher why this was. The answer: Despair. “Even before the pandemic, we were already on a very, very toxic and dangerous path,” she says. [03:46]

We’ve all heard—maybe even said—the phrase “time is money.” Headlee was surprised to discover that it’s a relatively new phrase. She dug through labour records dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans—and found that for most of history, work happened in pulses. Hunter-gatherer societies worked a day or two a week. Agricultural societies would work hard for a condensed period of time, and then take a celebratory break, like a harvest festival. It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution came about that work became a more task-based constant that led to our eventual obsession with productivity. “This is very, very recent in terms of an evolutionary change,” Headlee says, “which means we can change it back.” [05:31]

So when Headlee says “do nothing,” does she actually mean to sit around and do, well, nothing? Not exactly. “Leisure is not inactivity,” she says. “You can be active while you are at leisure. ‘Do nothing’ just means stop trying to produce stuff, stop worrying about the product or the utility of that time and do what you want.” [16:10]

“You are not a multitasker—none of us are multitaskers,” Headlee says. The truth is that the human body and brain isn’t designed to multitask. In fact, multitasking is associated with damage to our cognitive processes. Headlee found research that proves that multitasking degrades the quality of your work, lowers your IQ in that moment (to the point where you could be on par with an eight-year-old) and that you get worse at multitasking over time, not better. Multitasking is even associated with lower brain density, especially in areas related to self-control and empathy. “It’s a terrible idea to try to treat our own bodies and brains like a computer,” she says. “It’s much easier if you work with your body and brain instead of against it.” [16:58]

Overwork is bad for our health. By constantly pushing ourselves, we put ourselves into such a state of stress that we activate the amygdala—the portion of the brain that is only supposed to be in control under great threat or danger. That, in turn, affects our decision-making abilities. The stress raises blood levels of cortisol and can leave us feeling exhausted, causing further stress in a vicious feedback loop. “That’s what causes burnout,” Headlee explains. “Burnout isn’t because of one bad day or even a bad week. It’s chronic.” [19:42]