Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
Written by Bill Burnett
Narrated by Bill Burnett
4/5
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Currently unavailable
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About this audiobook
At last, an audiobook that shows you how to build-design-a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage
Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home-at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve.
In this audiobook, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.
Editor's Note
Daylight savings…
Based on a Stanford University course, <i>Designing Your Life</i> offers tips and tricks for laying out the ideal life. A smart guide for taking advantage of the extra daylight.
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Reviews for Designing Your Life
212 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An extraordinarily intelligent and practical guide to career- and life- design.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the most helpful career/self-help books I’ve ever come across. Recommend it to everyone, even if you don’t think you need any life help
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book is so good! Very realistic and objective. Love it
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5thank you. It's so clear for me to life a well life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Takes a design engineering perspective on career discernment. I liked that. Also, most chapters have some practical exercises to work on, to help you figure out what you want and how to get there.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I normally shun anything resembling a career mapping book. The modern working world feels too volatile and the best advice seems to be embrace change, learn and adapt. This book is called "Designing Your Life" but it could also be called "Designing Your Career" given how so much of our lives revolves around the work we do. So, yes, I was a reluctant reader for a while until the authors pitch the idea of prototyping as their method of choice. Eureka! Now we're talking. Prototyping, or simply trying stuff until something works, is a much more organic approaching, and would you believe it much more successful one.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Took a very long time to get through this. Lots to think about, but is it actionable?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While this book offered helpful advice, I found by the end that it was difficult to read and complete the activities. As someone who works with designers (and lives with one), I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief and accept the idealized vision of designers and design thinking in this book. I don't know any designers who are as put together as this book makes it sound like they are, nor do I know any designers who actively use all the steps of "design thinking". I also found the business language (i.e. "radical collaboration", "co-creation", "reframing failure") excruciating to read, thought that many of the case study examples were idealized, and couldn't stand the constant happy references to Stanford, as though all Stanford students and academics have the answers to life. While it was informative to read about half of the tips in this book, and filled with advice I've also heard from recruiters, it was a slog to finish and I ended up taking almost a six month break before I could work my way through the last half. However, it's one of the least annoying examples of job hunt literature I've read (which is saying a lot about the genre), so I do recommend it for that reason.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Best for: Anyone at a bit of a crossroads in life, trying to figure out their next career move.In a nutshell: The creators of the Designing Your Life workshops and program at Stanford offer their tips and process for figuring out options for your career, using design as the basis.Worth quoting:“If it’s not actionable, it’s not a problem”“There is no one idea for your life. There are many lives you could live happily and productively (no matter how many years old you are).”Why I chose it:I’m in a new country with no job and some time to figure things out. The hardcover version of this book caught my eye multiple times, although I hesitated to buy it. I probably should have stuck with my instincts.Review:This is not a bad book. There is a lot of good advice in it, and I think that it may very well work. I’m just not sure that I have what is necessary to really implement their suggestions. And by “what is necessary,” I mean energy. Because there is a lot to do here. And it makes sense — we’re talking about figuring out career options that are actually feasible, and that’s a big part of life for many people. But at one point when they give an example of success in sorting things out coming after TWO HUNDRED conversations with individuals.I just — even without a job, how on earth am I going to connect with two hundred people? I just … no.That said, there are some good take-aways, like exercises to help you sort out what matters to you in life and in work, and how to think about how your career aligns with your values. The authors are also clear that there is no one right answer for any of us; the point of designing our lives is to come up with ideas, options, and possible paths and then test them out a bit before jumping in completely.I jammed through the first few chapters then felt myself just sort of stuck. I don’t know if I’m lazy (unlikely), or realistic about what will work with me (possible), or what, but this just wasn’t the right book for me.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5a book very good, i like us
hai long van - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Definitely enhanced my view on life and my situation. I was feeling very confused about my life direction and this book helped shift my perspective. Now I feel bold in my decisions.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It wasn't until I was more than halfway through that I realized that most of this advice I'd already heard before, from Barbara Sher's Wishcrafting. Same ideas, different structure. Which is fascinating and useful, really.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is based on a class taught by the authors at Stanford University. They use design principles, a process typically used to create new products, to help students design their lives. The authors challenge the idea that you should figure out what you are passionate about and then go do it. Instead, they suggest that we may not know what we are passionate about until we try it. They suggest that we should build our way forward, tracking what brings us joy, brainstorming ways to integrate more of these activities into our lives, and creating multiple possible paths forward. The book is packed with practical exercises. My favorite is the Odyssey Plan, which suggests creating three alternative five-year plans that include a timeline of both work and nonwork events. For example, you might consider the thing you do now, the thing you'd do if that things were gone, and the thing you'd do if money or image were no object. By detailing these and considering the questions that you have about each, you can what conversations you might need to have with others to figure out what's the best path for you
10 people found this helpful