University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
I Didn’t Do the Thing Today
A review of

I Didn’t Do the Thing Today

Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

Madeleine Dore • Avery • 2022

Not Getting Things Done

by Patricia Sanders

Nobody gets everything done. Extraordinary Routines blogger Madeleine Dore draws on hundreds of interviews with artists, entrepreneurs and other creatives to delve into the reasons – and explains why you shouldn’t even try.

When writer and blogger Madeleine Dore launched her Extraordinary Routines project in 2014, she aimed to discover how successful people manage to be, well, so successful. Over the subsequent five years, she interviewed hundreds of high achievers about their secrets for accomplishing exceptional things. 

The project led her to a stunning realization: Productivity isn’t a worthy goal. How well you love, learn and roll with the punches is a better measure of a life well lived than how much you accomplish. This insight inspired Dore’s book, I Didn’t Do the Thing Today, which deconstructs the productivity myth while offering a fresh outlook on achievement. 

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