Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much

Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much by Tony Crabbe

This book is a bit of an outlier in my usual reading choices, but I don't call this blog the wayward bookshelf for nothing. I read where my interests follow. 

So, I read this book as part of a professional development book club, and wasn’t sure what to expect going in. As it turned out, I really liked a lot of what Tony had to say, and some of the changes he recommends for improving our lives in a world that’s saturated with information.

Some of my favorites are his push back on productivity & time management. These are business buzz words, and have been for a long time, but they don’t really work for us. Tony instead recommends managing attention and being strategic, and just in that reframing, there is already a loosening of long held ideas, a perspective that we can be effective and engage in our lives/careers in a different way.

The tips presented are soundly based in psychological research, and well-documented with an extensive bibliography for those who’d like to dig deeper. And each chapter ends with a very practical summary & a list of actionable steps that help the reader sum up and make changes in real time.

For anyone struggling with simply having too much to do, make time for this book. It’s worth it.