Work Less And Play More

"Rest is such a valuable book. If work is our national religion, Pang is the philosopher reintegrating our bifurcated selves."---Arianna Huffington, New York Times Book Review Overwork is the new normal. Rest is something to do when the important things are done—but they are never done. Looking at different forms of rest, from sleep to vacation, Silicon Valley futurist and business consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang dispels the myth that the harder we work the better the outcome. He combines rigorous scientific research with a rich array of examples of writers, painters, and thinkers—from Darwin to Stephen King—to challenge our tendency to see work and relaxation as antithetical. "Deliberate rest," as Pang calls it, is the true key to productivity, and will give us more energy, sharper ideas, and a better life. Rest offers a roadmap to rediscovering the importance of rest in our lives, and a convincing argument that we need to relax more if we actually want to get more done.

Having more fun at work isn't a fantasy. It's a smart and savvy strategy to becoming a more creative, productive, and dynamic employee. Work Like Your Dog is an inspiring call to "come out and play" at work. Dogs seem to have endless energy and tackle tasks with enviable enthusiasm, and Matt Weinstein and Luke Barber believe that most people could take a course from their ca-nines. By learning to play more at their jobs, workers can "lick" difficult challenges, take pleasure from tasks previously dreaded, reduce their levels of stress, and recharge their creative side. People spend more time working, thinking about work, and traveling to and from work than all other waking activities combined. Employees are asked to do more for less--making their work lives more exhausting and less satisfying. More hours are far from the answer; honing a sense of frolic and fun is. This book is a launching pad for fifty fun lessons about frolicking your way to success: Don't be afraid of being the fool. Be prepared to take risks; your new experiences may well lead to new contacts or new accounts and, if nothing else, will make you feel wonderful. Celebrate every success, not just your own but your coworker's new account, brilliant idea, or anniversary. You'll help release tension, underscore positives, and keep people aware of challenges conquered. Use humor to solve problems. Create a swearing room, where you and coworkers vent frustrations. Use a joke to diffuse verbal abuse from a customer. Humor can help you stay focused on the most important aspects of your job and prevent the worst aspects from getting the upper hand. Why choose stress? Almost every situation can provoke either stress or laughter. If you choose the highway of humor, your job will be more enjoyable and you'll work more effectively. And many more suggestions, stories, and ideas to unleash your playful professional and keep you from barking up the wrong tree. Weinstein and Barber's advice comes from seminar attendees and hundreds of corporate clients, such as American Express, IBM, Federal Express, and AT&T. This book shares the wisdom from these employees and from twenty-plus years of helping people enjoy their way to success.

At the heart of Making Play Just Right: Unleashing the Power of Play in Occupational Therapy is the belief that the most effective way to ensure pediatric occupational therapy is through incorporating play. The Second Edition is a unique resource on pediatric activity and therapy analysis for occupational therapists and students. This text provides the background, history, evidence, and general knowledge needed to use a playful approach to pediatric occupational therapy, as well as the specific examples and recommendations needed to help therapists adopt these strategies.

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together