Life Without Work

With this book and one afternoon, chances are you can cut your work week down to 15 hours or less. The simple process requires nothing more than a little motivation, a willingness to embrace change, and about a month of preparation. No waiting, no fancy tricks, just effective, simple solutions. Here, Jesse Shelton explains how work in its conventional 9-5 form is not necessary, and, through concise and pragmatic advice, maps a way out of it. Tired of sifting through dozens of verbose and partially-effective books promising to save money, eliminate the need for work, and save the environment, Shelton decided to write his own; a book that would concisely explain the most effective ways to reduce or eliminate the need for money-making work while simultaneously reducing our overall negative environmental impact. The result is this book, based on his life and experiences living without a "regular" job.

He starts with four simple premises:

1. The majority of the labor humans engage in is not necessary.
2. This additional labor has been unconsciously created as a result of our impractical lifestyles.
3. The extent of this impracticality directly correlates to the distance to which our lifestyles are removed from natural processes.
4. We can close the distance between our lifestyles and natural processes through simple changes.

Using these premises as a foundation, Shelton explains over 340 specific ways to eliminate work, and to start enjoying life. He covers subjects such as energy and water, food and drink, health and cleaning, transportation, work-eliminating housing retrofits, financial decisions and investments, travel, and how to set up automated incomes. After all this, what we are left with is more free time, less stress, and an environmentally-friendly life that's still as comfortable as everyone else's.

The primary benefit being that, without work, we can take all those hours we normally spend trying to build a good life, and use them to actually live it.