I Didn't Do the Thing Today Quotes

“In the swirl of it all, it's difficult to see that we're being set up to fail. We're told to work hard in a society that undervalues our labor. We're being told to self-optimize in a culture that also tells us we'll never be enough. Instead, we need to buy, pursue, or do this thing if we're to have any hope of reaching contentment-- all the while, we're chasing a shadow. If we aren't benefiting from our overwork, overdoing, overachieving, why do we insist on fastening our self-worth to how productive we are?”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Maybe we can’t expect to enjoy every day, but we can find it endearing. When we reach the end of the day, instead of berating ourselves for what we did or didn’t do, we can be charmed by the ordinary moments of living and what our days can bring. As writer Marieke Hardy told me, “In my work life, social life, and emotional life, I’ve always got something to look forward to—and sometimes that’s a donut.” Imagine what someone would do with just a few days of your life, if they had the chance. Would they reserve their enjoyment in anticipation of the big things, or would they see that there’s something to look forward to in something as simple as a donut? Would they worry about what they did or didn’t do, or would they search for the moments they enjoyed? Would they notice what they have? Would they say what they want to say? Would they dance around in the fecund garden of the day? Imagine just a few days of it. What we all have in common is that”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Whether it’s by delivering a compliment, sending a nice text to a friend when you think of them, taking care of a chore for someone, or donating to charity—do it right when you have the thought to do so. We might delay doing the thing today, but don’t delay kindness. Do it before the moment passes. After all, isn’t it the people in our lives rather than the things that are of the utmost importance? Perhaps that’s one way we can all be day artists—we may not be able to shape our day entirely”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“When we narrow our day to how productive we are, we leave little space for generosity and kindness. When we have a crowded day, a catch-up with a friend or a conversation with a neighbor might seem a burden. When we hide our imperfections, we can dampen our opportunity to connect. When we pursue higher, better, more, we may overlook those around us. We don’t see each other, we don’t hear each other, we don’t extend enough kindness to each other when we are confined to the doing. When I survey my days, I see that it’s often kindness that refreshes them. When someone steps aside to let us pass, to help us pick up the contents of a spilled bag, to ask our name,”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“believe we are not defined by who we are, but how we try to be. So, leave them alone.” To overcome perfectionism, we must learn to leave ourselves alone—to stop being our own bullies, stop judging ourselves for taking messy incremental steps, and instead focus on the act”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“As Simone Weil wrote in Gravity and Grace, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” We see this in the very etymology of the word attention, which comes from the Latin verb attendere, meaning “to stretch toward” something. So to give someone or something our full attention is to extend ourselves, our resources, our energy, our generosity. The gift of attention can be extended to other parts of our lives. It can be given societally, to pressing problems such as income inequality, the climate crisis, and systemic racial injustice. Directing our attention to such issues is signaling what”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Perhaps there’s something to be said for waking and beginning our day with delight rather than dread. When I interviewed farmer and restaurateur Matthew Evans, he described how he has recently been starting his day with porridge and a dollop of homemade clotted cream because he prefers to begin, not end, the day with a highlight. “Putting a dab of that on my porridge in the morning with brown sugar? Delightful. It’s so early in the day, you think that the day can’t get better than that. Most days it does, but it’s still pretty wonderful.” Inspired by Evans, this is what I’ve come to think of as the “Eat the Clotted Cream” method: if we start our day with the most delightful thing, it might have a ripple effect on our mood as the day unfolds.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Again, the hardest part of the equation here is starting. So we must remember to make what we want to do attractive and possible. In other words, we need to make it as easy as possible to begin. It can take a long time to get started, even with something we’ve had success with starting before. Each day I want to go for a run, I still sense some resistance in myself because”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Now when I’m stuck, I try to find a way to start with delight rather than dread. Starting with fascination or delight is far more appealing than being bored or frustrated with a regular practice before you’ve even begun. It’s also more sustainable because you’re less likely to give up in the way you might when a practice is attached to punishment. As writer and activist Carly Findlay told me, “I don’t want”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“look good—it became more appealing to go for a run. The reward was in the doing itself rather than in the outcome. Because it was now inherently enjoyable, I exercised more often, inadvertently building a regular practice (or discipline) of running—and gradually I reached my goal of running five kilometers, and later ten.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“delightful discipline”—that which is driven by a curiosity for knowledge, a commitment to the practice, without the rigid sense of obedience or punishing rules that can stifle us. The focus is on training and the pursuit of knowledge, which can subsequently bring”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“The antidote is something I like to call “puddle theory”—a way to divide overwhelming tasks and take things smallest step by smallest step. Instead of contemplating the insurmountable sea, we can create tiny puddles that we don’t fear stepping into, making it easier to begin. For example, instead of focusing on a disorderly garage we want to tidy, we can take the task item by item. Puddle theory allows us to take on right-sized tasks and even move between them—splashing about in one puddle may lead us unexpectedly to another. This is a helpful reminder that often it doesn’t matter much where we start—what’s important”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“The antidote is something I like to call “puddle theory”—a way to divide overwhelming tasks and take things smallest step by smallest step. Instead of contemplating the insurmountable sea, we can create tiny puddles that we don’t fear stepping into, making it easier to begin. For example, instead of focusing on a disorderly garage we want to tidy, we can take the task item by item. Puddle theory allows us to take on”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“around one thousand minutes. Urban represented these as one hundred ten-minute blocks. “Throughout the day, you spend ten minutes of your life on each block, until you eventually run out of blocks and it’s time to go to sleep,” he writes. Placing the blocks into a ten-by-ten grid, we can then label each to gain insight into how we are spending them. “How many of them are put toward making your future better, and how many of them are just there to be enjoyed?” Urban asks. “How many of them are spent with other people, and how many are for time by yourself? How many are used to create something, and how many are used to consume something? How many of the blocks are focused on your body, how”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“For those of us who feel unease at doing nothing, perhaps we need to lean the other way—into the lazy. Maybe it’s worth inspecting why we’ve given laziness negative connotations and what circumstances, situations, or ideas lie beneath our judgments of it. Are we really being lazy, or have we internalized the idea that we should be working all the”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“feel ease or resistance toward rest has a lot to do with how it was modeled for us when we were growing up. If, as a kid, your weekends were spent relaxing on the couch, for example, you might have an easier time leaning into rest as an adult; if they were all go-go-go, on the other hand, you might well feel like you’re being lazy if you don’t keep up that intensity.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“This clicked for me when I spoke with psychotherapist and author Hilary Jacobs Hendel about how we process emotions. On the topic of productivity guilt, she explained that whether we”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Perhaps we resist rest not because we can’t find the time, but because we fear the boredom that can accompany doing nothing. But boredom is an important part of our lives. Often it’s used as a catch-all for feeling frustrated or upset or unfocused, but true boredom can be an important signal that something does not feel meaningful. As researcher and philosophy professor Andreas Elpidorou wrote in a journal article titled “The Bright Side of”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“It’s a quiet form of self-sabotage to attempt to do too much at the beginning—to try to hold something that’s too heavy. But one of the greatest antidotes to the overwhelm of expectation is to start small. Expectations can be stifling because they ignore our tendency to make mistakes, to procrastinate, to flail, to be interrupted and distracted. So maybe set the”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Perhaps the best advice for facing indecision is to recognize that we can make a choice and it doesn’t have to be the right one—because there is no such thing. Either it’s impossible to determine how we got it right, or we will convince ourselves we were right in time. Maybe we could save ourselves from the turmoil of indecision if we stop trying to find the “right” choice and just go with what feels good right now in our hearts. That might sound trite, but if a pro-and-con list is, at best, projection, who is to say the heart can’t be a better guide? I’m reminded of the words of writer Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“For when you don’t know where to start, focus on the step in front of you. Do the next necessary thing instead of tripping yourself as you try to look a hundred steps ahead. For when you’re anxious and worried, try to recall your past successes and where you’ve encountered good things before. For when you’re obsessing over the optimal decision for the future, shift your focus to what is satisfactory right now. For when you’re worried about disappointing someone else, consider which regret you are willing to accept. For when you’re choosing between Camembert and Brie, always choose Brie. That is, choose the richer life experience. For when you’re overthinking, step into your body, hold each choice, and notice which one takes the weight off your shoulders.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“successful you have to cut off two.” It’s a favorite passage of mine, as it speaks to the illusion of balance as well as the trade-offs behind most versions of success. We make the mistake of thinking we aren’t doing enough because we don’t have all four burners lit, when it’s actually very difficult for anyone to sustain them all at once. Life rarely comes at us in moderation. The four-burner theory also creates room in which we can experiment with various parts of our lives—if we turn off our social life burner, how does that affect the others? Many people lived this situation during the pandemic lockdown. No doubt there was loneliness and grief for our social lives, but for some, there was also a sense of relief. An empty calendar allowed us to clarify what we miss, or what we wish to protect in the future.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Whatever the work is, do it well—not for the boss but for yourself. 2. You make the job; it doesn’t make you. 3. Your real life is with us, your family. 4. You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Sometimes it’s not just the hours we worry about wasting but also the scraps of time that get lost in between—the countless minutes spent on bitsy chores, answering emails, replying to texts, waiting for other people. “Time confetti,” a term coined by the director of the Better Life Lab at New America, Brigid Schulte, describes how time is scattered about our days, resulting in the minutes spent on seemingly insignificant actions adding up to a multicolored mound of “wasted time.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“The beauty of such designated pockets of time is that they, too, can be flexible. As artist Peter Drew reminded me, “I don’t think it really matters if I get that quiet time early in the morning or really late at night, but you’ve got to get it somewhere.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Time is a luxury that many people don’t have—and so is a routine. Maybe a routine is not always the perfect vessel for holding the day’s variances, or our own.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Living creatively, then, means to live flexibly and openly, not sequentially. It means embracing creative tension because it’s the very thing that makes the orchestra so captivating—varying notes, voices, sounds. It means being creative with all that we encounter, including our stumbles.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Perhaps we don't want to be more productive in our days, but more fecund- that is, more capable of producing new growth, but not always in producing mode.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“But this is it. This day, this life, is not a dress rehearsal for another. There’s just the one show, and it’s the most spectacular one we will ever get. So do the thing you want in spite of it all, and bring your heart to it, even if it’s for a limited time only.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Ambition itself is not a character flaw—it can guide and propel us. But when we use it to fill our internal sense of emptiness, we run in circles. Instead of asking what ambition, what goal, what achievement will make us special—and make us feel whole—we can keep jostling with the incomplete parts of ourselves. We can stop worrying about how the rest of our lives will turn out and simply get through the smaller challenges we will encounter today. We live in this day, after all, not in the one we’re waiting for.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt