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caralibros's review against another edition
dnf'ed :( i found the writing to be repetitive and the way the author kept writing, "as [blank] said" was taking me out of the book. really unfortunate as i was interested in the ideas the book was presenting, but it didn't grab my attention at all.
han_reardonsmith's review
4.0
Maybe not especially my style (esp with the host of "successful public figures" interviewed to provide advice), and a little too committed to "productivity without the productivity guilt" ... as a part of me is as well, so I suppose I can't be too critical. I did like how Dore stays with the complexity of a lot of the mental challenges and blocks faced by those of us that struggle with this juncture. She encourages staying with the "both and" of what our brains can be so quick to try to turn into binary opposites we must choose between. This is the crux of the whole book's advice, and maybe it doesn't always recognise just *how* difficult it can be to carve out this space in the world we find ourselves in (with real-life capitalist imperatives, survival pressures, and also, you know, trauma/mental illness/inherited shit/etc). It does however challenge our desire for a quick fix, the magical solution to all ills, if we just found the "right" schedule/practice/sequence/tool that our problems would fade away. The other useful part of the text is that it delineates the many different but interrelated thinking and habit traps that are involved in the complex thing we call "procrastination". Given how many chapters there are to this book, it is very much a helpful read for anyone that things there is just one root cause of procrastination that will be easily overcome by just "trying" hard enough. I do wish I'd read this in my early twenties, it would have been particularly helpful then.
bookcheshirecat's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
“We make the mistake of labeling ourselves as nouns, when we are really verbs—we are not a runner, but rather a person who runs; we’re not a writer, but a person who writes. Our sense of self doesn’t have to be bundled up with whether we did the thing today—because we are not the things we do.”
➽ I've been checking out more self-help books and I Didn't Do the Thing Today came at the perfect time! It's all about letting go of productivity guilt and approaching our relationship with it differently. I have definitely noticed how productivity has become tied in with self-worth and image, so I sometimes struggle not to feel bad when things don't work out with my to-do list. The author did a great job incorporating quotes, examples and anecdotes from her personal life to talk about different aspects of productivity. Each chapter focuses on a new topic and I found the audiobook soothing to listen to.
➽ This is definitely a book I want to reread because the author had a lot of different arguments that really spoke to me. I liked how she talked about how routines are seen as the ultimate solution, but won't work for everyone, especially with how intricate and ambitious they have become. The author makes it clear that everyone is different and advice won't ever be for anyone. I liked that she also mentioned Mindset, a book I read recently, which is about growth vs. fixed-minded people. There are a lot of good discussions in the book, such as the myth of being able to balance everything in life perfectly and how being 'busy' has become a status symbol even though we need rest. I wish there had been more practical applications for the lessons of the book. Dore always ends with some advice, but I feel like there could have been more of it!
holly_keimig's review
2.0
I was excited about the premise of this book. It had some good ideas and some good quotes and places to look elsewhere for ideas, but the book itself was a bit repetitive. Non-productivity is a tricky subject to cover in a way that makes someone want to be productive enough to finish reading the book about it. I think there are likely better options than this in that genre, but overall not a terrible read and not bad to listen to while getting things done.