Working Simply: The Case for Part-Time Work by Linda Breen Pierce

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.

Changing Course offers a free newsletter and other resources to help people discover and follow their dreams of a more fulfilling work/life doing what they love. Offers ideas on creative alternatives to traditional jobs.

Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsha Sinetar (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, Reissued 1989). An inspirational best seller, the author contends that it is possible to do work that you enjoy while also providing for your material needs. Explores concept of right livelihood and describes various paths people have taken to experience it.

Downshifting: How to Work Less and Enjoy Life More by John D. Drake (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2001). Psychologist and former CEO of large human resources consulting firm discusses negative impact of excessive work hours and offers practical advice on how to downsize. Reviews options such as flextime schedules, gradual retirement plans, and requesting a lower level job within the same organization.

Follow Your Bliss by Hal Zina Bennett and Susan J. Sparrow (Upper Lake, CA: Tenacity Press, 1997). Authors show how to first discover, and then follow, your bliss through exploration of your inner self. With this self-knowledge, you can then embark on your life paths, creating work and relationships that bring inner peace and fulfillment.

How to Find the Work You Love by Laurence G. Boldt (New York: Arkana, 1996). Guides the reader to discover his calling in life. Offers suggestions to achieve that result, emphasizing four elements-integrity, service, enjoyment, and excellence.

The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked by Ernie Zelinski (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Pr, 3rd edition, 1997). Explores the positive values of leisure time and activities. Examines the difficult challenges of embracing leisure joyfully in a culture that celebrates workaholism.

Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work that You Love by Barbara J. Winter (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993). Advocates self-employment, sometimes in multiple services or businesses, as an alternative to a salaried position working for others. Offers guidance and encouragement to those who want to combine their passions with income-producing activities.

The Man Who Mistook His Job for a Life: A Chronic Overachiever Finds the Way Home by Jonathon Lazear (New York: Crown Publishers, 2001). Memoir of a workaholic. Explores inner journey of a man whose self-worth was defined primarily by what he did for a living to a person who broadened his world and identity to include a full human experience.

The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure by Juliet B. Schor (New York: BasicBooks, Reprinted 1993). Discusses the evolution of American culture of work and consumerism, the work-and-spend treadmill. Charts the loss of leisure in America and offers compelling arguments for restructuring our work to provide more time for living.

The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time by Matthew Fox (New York: Harper San Francisco, 1995). Radical priest proposes a spirituality of work that allows people to experience a revitalization of daily work, a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic soul work. Promotes a harmonious integration of personal and professional lives.

Simplify Your Work Life: Ways to Change the Way You Work So You Have More Time to Live by Elaine St. James (New York: Hyperion, 2001). Offers practical tips for managing work life, including topics such as setting boundaries between work and home, work relationships, and productivity.

The Stirring of the Soul in the Workplace by Alan Briskin (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, Reprint edition 1998). Business consultant examines how organizational structures interfere with the experience of the soul in the workplace-passion, creativity, imagination, caring, and meaning-and reflects on how we might integrate the whole human being into the workplace.

Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life by Steven Keeva (McGraw Hill/Contemporary Books, 1999). Author examines the spiritual crisis in the legal profession and offers advice and inspiration to lawyers who want to return to the ideals they had when they graduated from law school.

Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook by Michael Fogler (Lexington, KY: Free Choice Press, 2nd edition, 1999). Freelance musician and peace activist discusses the benefits of living a home-based, freelance-work lifestyle rather than work in a single, full-time, career-oriented job.

Vacation Work's International Directory of Voluntary Work by Louise Whetter and Victoria Pybus (Oxford: Vacation Work, 7th Ed, 2000). Lists over 700 organizations throughout the world that offer volunteer work opportunities. Some provide stipends for room and board, travel expenses, or other compensation.

When Work Doesn't Work Anymore: Women, Work, and Identity by Elizabeth Perle McKenna (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1998). Part memoir, part social essay, this former publisher focuses on the successful career woman who has integrated the traditional male definition of success, experienced it, and then concludes it doesn't work. Solutions from women interviewed by the author point to many examples of living more simply.

Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life by Joe Robinson (New York: Perigee, 2003). Founder of Work to Live Campaign criticizes American practice of excessive work hours and offers suggestions for breaking out of the burn-out trap, getting more vacation time, and working fewer hours.

Working from Home: Everything You Need to Know about Living and Working under the Same Roof by Paul Edwards and Sarah Edwards (New York: J.P. Tarcher, 5th edition, 1999). Comprehensive manual for starting and maintaining a home-based business, including advice on computers, staying out of debt, and maintaining balance between work and your personal life.

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