{"id":112265,"date":"2020-04-15T08:13:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T13:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=112265"},"modified":"2026-09-12T21:08:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T02:08:45","slug":"podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #602: The Case for Being Unproductive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Decades ago, economists thought that thanks to advances in technology, in the&nbsp;21st century we&#8217;d only work a few hours a week and enjoy loads of leisure time. Yet here we are in the modern&nbsp;age, still working long hours and feeling like we&#8217;re busier than ever. What happened?<\/p>\n<p>My guest today argues that we&#8217;ve all been swept up into a cult of efficiency&nbsp;that started centuries ago and has only been strengthened by advances in technology. The remedy? Do nothing. At least nothing productive.<\/p>\n<p>Her name is <a href=\"https:\/\/celesteheadlee.com\/\">Celeste Headlee<\/a> and she&#8217;s the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B07TX4NWZ2\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B07TX4NWZ2&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><i>Do Nothing:&nbsp;How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving<\/i><\/a>. We begin our conversation taking a look at what work was like before industrialization and how we moderns work more than medieval serfs. Celeste then explains how industrialization moved us from task-based work to hour-based work and how that helped change our perception of time and usher in &#8220;the cult of efficiency.&#8221; We discuss how we&#8217;ve taken this penchant towards over-optimization&nbsp;which prevails in work life, and applied it to our personal and family lives as well, adding stress and stripping us of hobbies and social connections. We then dig into how this current moment of being forced into doing less can be used as a time to reevaluate our relationship to work, and how we can reconnect with the idea of doing things for their own sake, especially cultivating relationships with others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Decades ago, economists thought that thanks to advances in technology, in the&nbsp;21st century we&#8217;d only work a few hours a week and enjoy loads of leisure time. Yet here we are in the modern&nbsp;age, still working long hours and feeling like we&#8217;re busier than ever. What happened? My guest today argues that we&#8217;ve all been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/602-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/602-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/602-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/602-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/602-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Case for Being Unproductive | Art of Manliness Podcast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here we are in the modern\u00a0age, still working long hours and feeling like we&#039;re busier than ever. What happened? Here&#039;s why you should be more unproductive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #602: The Case for Being Unproductive | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here we are in the modern\u00a0age, still working long hours and feeling like we&#039;re busier than ever. What happened? Here&#039;s why you should be more unproductive.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-15T13:13:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-13T02:08:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/602.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #602: The Case for Being Unproductive\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-15T13:13:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T02:08:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":255,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/602.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Podcast\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Case for Being Unproductive | Art of Manliness Podcast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-602-the-case-for-being-unproductive\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/602.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-15T13:13:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T02:08:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"Here we are in the modern\u00a0age, still working long hours and feeling like we're busier than ever. 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