Books to rethink work and presence
One of the main reason for launching The Workation Way was to launch a project that helped me to escape the digital world, rethink work life balance and spend more time off-screen. So to gain new insights and ideas for the retreat, I’ve turned to printed pages instead of digital sites. I’ve scheduled time to read, reflect, and sit still with a book. This process has helped me approach the mindset I want to develop and share during The Workation Way.
Here are five books that have been instrumental in helping me plan and curate the experience of The Workation Way.
How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
Written by Oakland-based artist Jenny Odell, this book explores the attention economy and share perspectives and actions to help resisting it. I found the academic approach a bit challenging but appreciated the anti-tech dilemma that was addressed throughout the book. It gave me a new understanding of our society and culture today. From this, I will share thoughts and directions to dig deeper into the attention economy and draw conclusions on how this theme can relate to the freelance reality.
Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi
Expanding upon a similar idea Bored and Brilliant investigates our attention span and how boredom can have an impact on our brain, creativity and productivity. This book presents a much more straightforward approach to encourage the reader to explore the world of boredom and stillness. I will base workshops, writing prompts, and discussions on my findings and look forward to discussing and developing these topics even further with the retreat community.
The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker
A practical and inspiring read for those who are curious about rediscovering yourself and the space around you. With structured exercises you can do yourself or invite others to do with you, it invite the reader to start seeing things a bit differently. The content of the book really resonates with the concept I’ve designed for the retreat. Thanks to this good-looking piece of inspiration I have lots of in-depth interactive elements and exercises I plan to do during the retreat. I discovered and purchased this book at the opening night of Purple Institute, a new Stockholm-based venue focusing on balance, brains, and behavior.
How to Travel by The School of Life
I’ve followed The School of Life for years and hope to attend one of their conferences soon. Until then, I’m reading their books and digital content to find tools to use for myself, my students, and most recently, my retreat participants. How to Travel is a book of essays inquiring the human behavior and commentating our pleasure-seeking patterns when visiting a new or old place. Since workation is equally about traveling and working, these stories relates to the retreat in many different ways.
Becoming Me by Andrea Pippins
A beautiful draw it yourself journal to discover your creative path created by illustrator and design educator Andrea Pippins. The book design is colorful, and the content is caring. With encouraging prompts and exercises, the book offers new ways to grow and develop your creative voice. For the retreat, I’m planning a session on creative flow and will share insights and exercises from Andrea’s beautiful book.
Reboot by Jerry Colony
This book highlights the importance of healthy relationships and balance to find positive path towards successful leadership. Written by “the CEO whisperer” Jerry Colonna the book covers topics such as psychology, growth, self leadership and human behavior.
The book explores ways to reset yourself, reconnecting with your dreams, reflect on life, and carve out a career in tune with your true self. The book is a transforming and honest journey to leading yourself and others.
For the retreat goers, these books will be brought to the island for us to read, reflect, and rethink the way we work and travel. Have a look at our program schedule and sessions here: www.theworkationway.com/schedule
