Author: Marlee Grace

In “How To Not Always Be Working: A Toolkit for Creativity and Radical Self-Care,” author Marlee Grace gives us a book every working adult should read.

It is tiny. You can slip it into your tote, read it during your lunch break, or flip through it after work. It is a small reminder to not always be working, and that will work in your favor.

“Here is a book, a workbook, a guide, an ode to not knowing. I wrote it first as a tiny zine that I typed up on my typewriter. I glued all the words down and scanned in the pages, printed them out, and stapled them together,” Grace writes.

“I wrote it for myself. The more I shared the little workbook with other people, the more I found that my friends were also in deep need of this process of identifying our work.”

She started it for herself first, which shows how important it was to her, and she found that we all could use it. Bosses should read this book; employees should read it. Everyone should remember that work will always be there — but not working is work too.

Part advice manual, part love letter, this book is full of practical tips — like keeping your phone in a box in another room — and poses bigger questions that make you stop and ask why you are burning out.

Grace, an artist and writer living on the coast of California, also runs a community space and public studio called Center. It is an aptly named venue that brings creatives together.

Her 2018 book feels as relevant today as ever, its chapters reminding us that we have to take charge of our own lives and create a rhythm that actually makes sense to us.

Learning how to not always be working is not about doing less, never working, or avoiding a job: It is a gentle but firm reminder to pause, breathe, and reclaim your time.