Designing Your Life

A gem amid self-help dross... The authors make the case that design skills such as reframing, prototyping and brainstorming can help us make better career and life choices, or undo bad choices before they do more harm. One idea: keep a diary noting how much you enjoy each task and think about how to do more of the tasks you love * Financial Times * Youre going to learn how to find a fulfilling career. Youre going to learn how to better navigate lifes big-moment decisions and kill your wicked problems dead... Design thinking, as rendered in the book, is about treating life in a more improvisational way. Its a welcome counterbalance to the data-driven, engineering mind-set gripping the culture. Follow Mr. Burnetts and Mr. Evanss teachings, and the anxiety-ridden process of decision making suddenly seems more playful. Their method is experiential and accepts that failure is part of the process * New York Times * Their philosophy is that by applying a Silicon Valley-tested design approach, we can all build lives that will suit us better regardless of our age... I sketched my own plans, which unearthed dreams Id never really articulated, or hadnt thought about in over a decade. I drew an alternative life, in which I would work with photographers at a gallery or an art publisher. The process gave me an ego boost maybe Im not a one-trick pony and filled me with a sense of possibility that reminded me of being a kid -- Hattie Crisell * Pool * Life has questions. They have answers * New York Times * A Designing Your Life class has become one of Silicon Valley's most popular courses... Two academic studies have now proved its ability to cut anxiety on the career front and help people each their goals whatever their age... Crucially, your life is not a problem to be solved. It's an experience, and the fun comes from designing it -- Christina Patterson * Daily Mail * Numerous studies suggest were generally miserable at work... The book was born out of the eponymous course Burnett and Evans teach at Stanford and uses techniques that anyone familiar with design thinking will instantly recognize to allow us to take control of our lives... With change likely to be a growing presence in all of our lives, the basic design principles outlined above could prove invaluable in helping us to create the kind of life we want -- Adi Gaskell * Forbes * [Bill Burnett and Dave Evans] bring a rigorous approach to rethinking your life (with a major focus on work) and have been credited with revolutionising careers coaching in American universities... [Designing Your Life] teaches you how to change whats not working by turning ideas on their head. I think of it as Bill and Daves Excellent Adventure: How To Stop Driving Yourself Mad With Unnecessary Drama And Anxiety -- Viv Groskop * Pool * Everyone should read this book! -- Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Bill and Dave's session was one of the highlights of FutureFest 2016. Hundreds of people packed into The Social Stage, a relatively small space, to see them; the laughter from their audience was heard throughout the venue. Clearly they made a significant impact as they managed to sell more books than all the other speakers at FutureFest combined -- Josh McNorton * FutureFest * There is no design problem more challenging than figuring out what we are going to do with our life . . . Bill Burnett and Dave Evans are bringing their powerful insights to readers everywhere to help them create a productive and happy life . . . This [is] the career book of the next decade and . . . the go-to book that is read as a rite of passage whenever someone is ready to create a life they love -- -- David Kelley, Founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford

Bill Burnett is the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford. He got his BS and MS in Product Design at Stanford and has worked professionally on a wide variety of projects ranging from award-winning Apple PowerBooks to the original Star Wars action figures. He holds a number of mechanical and design patents, and design awards for a variety of products including the first slate computer. Dave Evans is the Co-Founder of the Stanford Life Design Lab and holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. Early in his career he worked for Apple, where he led the mouse-design team and introduced laser printing to the masses. He then helped found the pioneering interactive and game software developer Electronic Arts.