‘Self-help for the collectively minded, How to Do Nothing is as thoughtful and morally serious as it is fun to read. ‘Compelling, provocative and hopeful – a roadmap for stillness and reflection in an age of distraction.’-Jill Stark, author of Happy Never After and When You're Not OK ‘Thoughtful, compelling, and practical.’- GQ ‘ wants to give readers permission to be a human, in a body, in a place.’- The Guardian ‘An invigorating meditation on ways of seeing and being more present … It’s a book that could change you for the better.’- LitHub ‘A manifesto for the internet age.’ -The A.V. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, it shows us how to preserve our inner lives and bring about change in a world that needs this more than ever. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humanity’s role in the environment, and arrive at a more meaningful understanding of happiness and fulfilment.įar from a simple anti-technology screed, How to Do Nothing is an action plan for thinking beyond capitalist narratives of efficiency and value. Odell sees our attention as the most precious – and overdrawn – resource we have. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to slowing down.

But in a world where our value is determined by our data productivity, doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance.

Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. In a world where our every minute is captured, optimised or appropriated, How to Do Nothing offers a much-needed action plan for slowing down and living more responsively.Ī Barack Obama favourite book of the year 2019Ī galvanising critique of the forces vying for our attention – and our personal information – that redefines what we think of as productivity and reveals what we’ve been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world.

Odell how to do nothing