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Designing Your Work Life  By  cover art

Designing Your Work Life

By: Bill Burnett, Dave Evans
Narrated by: Bill Burnett, Dave Evans
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Publisher's summary

From the authors of the number one New York Times best seller Designing Your Life ("Life has questions. They have answers" (The NYT)) - a job-changing, outlook-changing, life-changing audiobook that shows us how to transform our work lives and create a dream job that is meaningful without necessarily changing the job we have.

Dysfunctional belief: I'm stuck in a lousy situation (and there's nothing I can do about it).
Reframe: I'm stuck in a lousy situation (and I'm finding the problems and the solutions).

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans successfully taught graduate and undergraduate students at Stanford University and readers of their best-selling book, Designing Your Life ("The prototype for a happy life." (Brian Lehrer, NPR)), that designers don't analyze, worry, think, complain their way forward; they build their way forward.

In Designing Your Work Life, Burnett and Evans show us how design thinking can transform our present job and our experience of work in general by utilizing the designer mindsets: Curiosity. Reframing. Radical collaboration. Awareness. Bias to action. Storytelling.

Dysfunctional belief: Good enough isn't good enough.
Reframe: Good enough is great - for now.

Burnett and Evans show us how, with tools, tips, and ideas, to enjoy what we have and to live in a state of "good enough, for now," one of the strongest, most effective reframes there is, and how this idea, once understood and accepted, can make new possibilities available, giving us the energy to enjoy the present moment and allowing us to begin to prototype possible futures.

And if we want to quit? Burnett and Evans show us how to use the job we have to get the job we want (in another company), and show us as well, the art and science of quitting (leave the campsite better than we found it), using the power of the quit design to reframe how we finish our current job and get a better one.

They write, as well, about how the work world is changing as the automation of work increases (hello Alexa, artificial intelligence, drones, and robots); how thinking like a designer can make us flexible, and ready to adapt to change....

This audiobook includes a bonus PDF of charts and worksheets.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (P)2020 Random House Audio

What listeners say about Designing Your Work Life

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100% hands on

this book is 100% hands on

no theory

gives hope

finished in no time

really enjoyable

true stories that's easy to identify with

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Read if you’re too burnt out think

Concise and actionable tips if my circumstances were different. Sadly this book is just more confirmation that I’m already doing the best I can. Maybe the next book needs to be focused on spiritual life.

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Clarity, action and inspiration

A great book! Bill and Dave tell it like it is, showing a clear, inspiring, step-by-step way to move forward with a career redesign. Their narration is great too. Highly recommended!

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1 person found this helpful

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Practical ideas

This book gave me a much-needed boost! It helped me reframe how I viewed my role at work, and to realize that I have more autonomy than I thought.

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3 people found this helpful

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Now I just need to put what I learned into practic

I have loved both books. while I am an audio learner, the practical nature of the material will require me to work through the material with the printed PDF or to buy the hardcopy of both books, and I will do that gladly.

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2 people found this helpful

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LOVE!!!

I love this book so much.
Helping me enjoy my work. I am more positive for things that happen unexpectation.

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Great book!

One of the best books I’ve ever read!
I will read (listen) it again!
Will also read the first one!
Thank you so much!

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5 people found this helpful

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A Little Long but Great Learning Points

Even though this book had too much fluff at times, everyone thinking of quitting their job should read this book first. Chapter 7 alone helped me realize why I was unhappy with my job. It is a good listen if you are trying to reengage at work. It could of been a little shorter but it is still a good listen.

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Changes in your mental model

This book is one that I didn’t necessarily need because I’m pretty “content” in my current job. However, there are always ways to improve one’s work life. The ideas within this book weren’t really “new” to me but they reiterated some things I felt and have helped me to, more directly, help other’s positively impact their work lives. If you’ve been struggling to find contentment in your work life or are looking for ways to “spice it up” this is a GREAT read.

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7 people found this helpful

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Well Written and Informative

It's clear these guys aren't just writing a book to make money, they are genuinely trying to create a happier and more positive workforce. They give realistic steps to take and homework to help you figure yourself out. Definitely want to share this book with everyone I know to create happier people around me

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2 people found this helpful