Mindful Simplicity is a beautifully designed web site that offers various exercises and reflections on mindfulness. The exercises guide the visitor to increase mindfulness in certain ways: to sense, recreate, relax, and center.

Take Back Your Time Day. This web site is the focal point for the campaign launched in the fall of 2003 called Take Back Your Time. The first Take Back Your Time Day was held on October 24, 2003, which represents the day you could quit working for the year if you lived in Europe compared with working in the United States. The purpose of this national initiative is to build awareness and to open dialogue about the issues related to excessive work hours.

Addicted to Hurry: Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down by Kirk Byron Jones (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2003). Thoughtful reflections by former pastor and now teacher of social ethics and pastoral ministry on how chronic speed is constantly diminishing our lives relationally, emotionally, and spiritually and what we can do to live more soulful, sane lives.

Breathing Space: Living and Working at a Comfortable Pace in a Sped-Up Society by Jeff Davidson (Chapel Hill, NC: Breathing Space Institute, Revised 2000). Explores the complex life of the typical, working North American-too rushed and harried, overwhelmed with too many choices, working too many hours, and insufficient sleep. Suggests ways to create more breathing space by taking responsibility for how you spend your time and what you allow to be a part of your environment.

Sharing the Work, Sparing the Planet: Work Time, Consumption, & Ecology by Anders Hayden (London: Zed Books, 2000). Discusses how work time reduction can contribute to reducing persistent unemployment and environmental degradation in industrial societies. Describes a range of possibilities, including a shorter working week, early retirement and parental leave. Explores political, economic, and cultural obstacles to work time reduction.

Six Months Off: How to Plan, Negotiate, and Take the Break You Need without Burning Bridges or Going Broke by Hope Dlugozima, James Scott, and David Sharp (New York: Henry Holt, 1996). Comprehensive guide for taking a sabbatical, including advice on making a proposal to your employer, health insurance alternatives, and financing issues.

Slowing Down in a Speeded Up World by Adair Lara (Berkeley: Conari Press, 1994). Collection of essays, anecdotes, and inspirational quotes on how to bring a sense of calm and peacefulness to our hectic, modern lives.

Take Back Your Time by John de Graaf (ed.) (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, September, 2003). A collection of essays written by prominent writers, university professors, social and environmental activists, business leaders, and physicians on the devastating effects of, and creative solutions to, excessive work hours in North America. Also provides guidelines for organizing community events for Take Back Your Time Day, the first of which is scheduled for October 24, 2003.

Taking Time Off: Inspiring Stories of Students Who Enjoyed Successful Breaks from College and How You Can Plan Your Own by Colin Hall and Ron Lieber (New York: Noonday Press, 1996). Relates stories of college students who have taken breaks before, during, or after college to experience a broad range of alternatives, including community service, living in foreign countries, and non-traditional work experiences. Includes practical guidance on planning a break from college.

The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work by Arlie Russell Hochschild (New York: Owl Books, Reissued 2001). Exposes negative cycle to American trend toward excessive work hours. When parents work too many hours, it creates stress at home, which in turn leads parents to spend more time at work to avoid stress at home. Discusses alternatives and solutions to this dilemma.

Timeshifting: Creating More Time to Enjoy Your Life by Stephan Rechtschaffen MD (New York: Doubleday, 1997). Physician/author focuses on how we respond to a faced-paced environment by aligning our own rhythms to that pace and how we can break that reaction to restore a sense of abundant time in our lives.

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