'I didn't do the thing today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt to Embrace the Hidden Value in Daily Life' (from now on IDDTTT) was published early this year and is a self-help book unlike most books I've read. While most non-fiction books - if not all of them - center around the notion that being more productive is always better than the counter option, laziness, IDDTTT focuses on the anti-productive movement. It helps distinguish not ticking all your to-dos from laziness and allows you to embrace being perfectly messy and imperfectly organized.
The ideas presented in this book are no different than the ideas behind the slow movement or even HYGGE, a Danish concept popularized by author Meik Wiking. It talks about the myths of routine, wasted time, work-life balance, perfection... And how we can actually hit pause and introspect to find what truly matters to us. If we do all the right things and follow all the right paths, without ever stopping to look at where we are and where we're heading, we might end up at the wrong end point.
For instance, we might climb the corporate ladder and be successful in what to do, only to realize later in life that we were meant to climb another proverbial ladder. Perhaps what we wanted all along was to follow a creative path, or an academic, etc. Instead of doing what everyone else is doing, a specific routine per say, we could pause from time to time, take breaks to think, and experiment with various routines. Just one simple example.
The main takeaway from this book is to allow ourselves to flourish and treat ourselves with kindness, instead of being a harsh parent - the book doesn't actually say that, but I think it's important to notice how sometimes we treat ourselves like a strict parent would treat a disobedient kid.
Be kind to yourself, be curious, find out what you want for yourself now and in the future. What you want might change, so make sure you change your mind, too. And don't forget to enjoy the journey.
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