What do you think?
Rate this book
The Three Boxes of Life and How to Get Out of Them: An Introduction to Life/Work Planning
Argues that three stages of life--education, work, and retirement--have become three boxes for learning, achievement, and leisure
466 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1978
10 people are currently reading
269 people want to read
About the author
Richard Nelson Bolles
51 books96 followersDick Bolles, more formally known as Richard Nelson Bolles, was a former Episcopal clergyman, a member of high-IQ society Mensa, and the author of the best-selling job-hunting book, What Color is Your Parachute? The book remained on The New York Times best-seller list for more than a decade and has sold over 10 million copies.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 31, 2020
Of all the Crytal/Bolles books about connecting your values and interests to how you want to spend your time and make a living, this is the one that had the biggest impact on how I think about life.
The 3 boxes are learning, working, and leisure. Bolles makes the point clearly that one doesn't have to follow ANY of the standard patterns for a life that includes all three. He notes that the standard persepctive is you spend time in each box (school & education, move to the work, then move to leisure in retirement), and that the standard rebellion is that "I have to balance these in my life all the time." He argues that there are many, many alternatives -- in fact, most of the book filled with examples of real people who made different choices. Decades late I still remember the guy who loved tropical fish so much he chose a career that didn't take his thought or time away from his fish. Reminds me of Einstein taking the patent office job so he could still think about physics.
The other major point in the book is that, once you know what change you want to see in the world, you don't have to give up what you value in how you spend your time to make a difference. The example I remember there is Pete Seeger becoming convinced that the Hudson River cleanup was the most important thing to him in the 1980s. So he organized working and singing parties, worked with others to build a boat to move the parties up and down the river, but stayed with his strengths and how he spent his time (singing and organizing) -- and the river got clean.
In some ways the book is almost like a math book in that, once I read it there were only these two ideas and I felt like I read a lot of words to get there. The book is actually, in my opinion, a little long. But most of it is examples to show you that these ideas are not unrealistic ideals but actual options that real people put into action every day. If you already believe that, and buy into those ideas, you don't have to read the book.
For me, seeing these ideas clearly and coming to believe them from the examples was enough to change how I thought about my 'career'. I've never looked back.
(BTW, this review is written over 20 years after I read the book. I recently realized the Crystal/Bolles books weren't on my GoodReads shelf. I still think of the impact this book has had on my thinking and even more on my actions.)
The 3 boxes are learning, working, and leisure. Bolles makes the point clearly that one doesn't have to follow ANY of the standard patterns for a life that includes all three. He notes that the standard persepctive is you spend time in each box (school & education, move to the work, then move to leisure in retirement), and that the standard rebellion is that "I have to balance these in my life all the time." He argues that there are many, many alternatives -- in fact, most of the book filled with examples of real people who made different choices. Decades late I still remember the guy who loved tropical fish so much he chose a career that didn't take his thought or time away from his fish. Reminds me of Einstein taking the patent office job so he could still think about physics.
The other major point in the book is that, once you know what change you want to see in the world, you don't have to give up what you value in how you spend your time to make a difference. The example I remember there is Pete Seeger becoming convinced that the Hudson River cleanup was the most important thing to him in the 1980s. So he organized working and singing parties, worked with others to build a boat to move the parties up and down the river, but stayed with his strengths and how he spent his time (singing and organizing) -- and the river got clean.
In some ways the book is almost like a math book in that, once I read it there were only these two ideas and I felt like I read a lot of words to get there. The book is actually, in my opinion, a little long. But most of it is examples to show you that these ideas are not unrealistic ideals but actual options that real people put into action every day. If you already believe that, and buy into those ideas, you don't have to read the book.
For me, seeing these ideas clearly and coming to believe them from the examples was enough to change how I thought about my 'career'. I've never looked back.
(BTW, this review is written over 20 years after I read the book. I recently realized the Crystal/Bolles books weren't on my GoodReads shelf. I still think of the impact this book has had on my thinking and even more on my actions.)
February 18, 2019
I really enjoyed this book and I recall the basic premise to this very day: we all tend to think that life is broken into 3 parts: education, work, and retirement. But we don't have to do them like that order, 1, 2 , 3. So I did some retirement in my 20's. I continued education into my 40's and I will be working, probably, into my 80's. Bolles says that's how it should be.
October 6, 2023
I read this because a more modern author mentioned it -- probably Oliver Burkeman -- and my interest was piqued because a lot of the better "retirement" books out there encourage a healthy mix of (you guessed it) education, work and leisure time. I read it, I will admit, very quickly, in part because it's as old as I am; the concepts have aged well but the actual resources it suggests are... well.... significantly pre-Google. So when it started listing specific books, organizations, phone numbers, statistics, etc, it became time to skim.
But this was fun; cooler on the inside than it looks like by the cover. In fact it's written with Many Capital Letters, apparently just for Fun (how whimsical), lots of illustrations, and a great number of callouts, lists, diagrams, cartoons, etc. So these things also make it a fast read. It reminded me, oddly, of Head First Java. It would have taken more time had I done all the exercises; reader, I did not, largely because I have done all the exercises in several other books of this type and I'm just not in that mode right now.
Some things I really liked include: a list of elements of a Philosophy of Life, just in case you want to make sure you have one. A "shopping list" of transferable skills to think about acquiring or brushing up. A list of self-management skills.
The question, roughly, of this: if you had an ideal balance in your life of education, work and leisure (let's assume it's 1/3 each), over what span of time would you like this to balance? Every day, every week, every season/year/decade? I know answers can vary on this one, because my answer is a week while my husband's is a season or a year.
This valuable reminder: the spirit with which you do the thing is what makes it Leisure; not the activity itself. A heartfelt ode to playfulness. An openness to various forms of "success".
It ends with a memento mori that puts things in perspective (and foreshadows Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by a few decades) but unfortunately, finally, brings the author's Christianity into the mix. It is, I know, not fair of me that I immediately cast a suspicious eye back over the entire book trying to figure out if that stuff had seeped into any of the life advice; it really mostly had not seeped, and the book does its best to be inclusive (gender within the binary, and across ages and backgrounds).
It would be fun to see this book trimmed down for the modern reader -- all an editor would have to do is keep the parts about human nature etc, and update some of the statistics and drop all the specific resources. Until that happens, I'll recommend Designing Your Life - How to Build a Well-Lived Joyful Life as a better resource for people in the early 2020s looking to rebalance things. But I'm still in awe of how incredible this book must have been when it came out in 1978.
But this was fun; cooler on the inside than it looks like by the cover. In fact it's written with Many Capital Letters, apparently just for Fun (how whimsical), lots of illustrations, and a great number of callouts, lists, diagrams, cartoons, etc. So these things also make it a fast read. It reminded me, oddly, of Head First Java. It would have taken more time had I done all the exercises; reader, I did not, largely because I have done all the exercises in several other books of this type and I'm just not in that mode right now.
Some things I really liked include: a list of elements of a Philosophy of Life, just in case you want to make sure you have one. A "shopping list" of transferable skills to think about acquiring or brushing up. A list of self-management skills.
The question, roughly, of this: if you had an ideal balance in your life of education, work and leisure (let's assume it's 1/3 each), over what span of time would you like this to balance? Every day, every week, every season/year/decade? I know answers can vary on this one, because my answer is a week while my husband's is a season or a year.
This valuable reminder: the spirit with which you do the thing is what makes it Leisure; not the activity itself. A heartfelt ode to playfulness. An openness to various forms of "success".
It ends with a memento mori that puts things in perspective (and foreshadows Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by a few decades) but unfortunately, finally, brings the author's Christianity into the mix. It is, I know, not fair of me that I immediately cast a suspicious eye back over the entire book trying to figure out if that stuff had seeped into any of the life advice; it really mostly had not seeped, and the book does its best to be inclusive (gender within the binary, and across ages and backgrounds).
It would be fun to see this book trimmed down for the modern reader -- all an editor would have to do is keep the parts about human nature etc, and update some of the statistics and drop all the specific resources. Until that happens, I'll recommend Designing Your Life - How to Build a Well-Lived Joyful Life as a better resource for people in the early 2020s looking to rebalance things. But I'm still in awe of how incredible this book must have been when it came out in 1978.
August 31, 2017
One of the best books I have read in my life. I always have 2 copies. One to lend/give away.
March 27, 2019
Excellent Book"!" A Must Read For "Happy Peppo"!" Learn-Less-Work, or as the Author says Do All Three At Once: Learning, Leisure, and Work "!"
December 12, 2007
Rated: B-
March 29, 2012
I liked the idea of mixing up the order of education, work and retirement.
Read
April 18, 2017It puts a spin on how you look at life.
March 20, 2021
One of the few self-help books that truly offers help.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews