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Take a Day Off

Short stories, poems and observations from the life we spend at work — funny in places, quietly serious in others.

Take a Day Off

Edition 02 · why rest is part of the work

A zine about working life

Take a day off

Short stories, poems and observations from the life we spend at work.

Ninety thousand hours. That's roughly what each of us spends at work over a lifetime.

This is a small book about spending them well — funny in places, subtly serious in others, and not a green smoothie or goat yoga in sight. No productivity system. No manifesto. Just honest, well-made pieces about what work does to us, and what we might do about it.

Written and designed by Rob Lambert · Winchester, 2023

A collection, not a course

Take a Day Off isn't a productivity guide, a manifesto, or a list of things to optimise. It's a zine – a collection of short stories, poems, visual pieces and observations about the life we spend at work.

Some pieces run to three sentences. Some are longer funnier stories. There's a poem about a communication expert whose brilliance confused everyone, a minute-by-minute diary of the worst meeting you've ever sat in, and a man called Colin who worked out – on his way into surgery – that he'd never really taken a day off.

It took a long time to write, mostly because the hard part was leaving things out: a thousand ideas whittled down to these few. You can read the whole thing in a day, and keep it by the kettle and dip into it for years.

A taste

It's funnier than it looks

Karma — and seagulls

Malcolm threw punches at a seagull over a bag of chips. By three o'clock the bird had come back — with several hundred friends, a TV crew, and revenge clearly on its mind.

Stop clearing up

Marcus offered to clear up after his neighbour's cat. Word got round the local cat community. Soon a thousand cats were using the garden, and Marcus had a full-time job with a bin bag.

Yawn. Meetings

10:18am — while making your third coffee, you loosen every sugar-shaker lid. 10:45am — word reaches the meeting that the CEO has just had a full shaker tipped into his coffee…

Inside the book

Every piece, in order

45 pieces · two posters each · over 130 pages

01Take a day offColin had the Jaguar, the big house, the place in Spain. At forty-five, on his way into surgery, he realised he'd never actually taken a day off.
02Identifying problemsCalling something a problem doesn't get rid of it. Surprising how many people stop there.
03BlandWhy good people reach for off-the-shelf solutions to problems they don't actually have.
04Communication proA poem about the expert whose brilliance sailed clean over everyone's head. We think.
05Show, don't tellYour behaviour tells people who you are long before your words get a word in.
06A mask falls offOn borrowing other people's habits, and the trouble with wearing a face that isn't yours.
07We all fall downA young man, a wet embankment in Sheffield, and the one person who didn't reach for their phone.
08Round and roundThe difference between a rut and a habit is where it's taking you.
09Productive outputYour worth is not your productive output.
10Yawn. MeetingsA minute-by-minute account of one meeting. Sugar shakers are involved. You'll recognise it.
11Work makes usWe think we make the work. Mostly, it's the other way round.
12The grass may not be greenerIt might well be. Just not if you're the thing that needs moving.
13A good jobWhat it actually feels like when work is developing you rather than grinding you down.
14Joy is a barometerIf nobody's enjoying it, something's wrong. Joy is data.
15What are others missing?The thing you can see that everyone else has walked straight past.
16What are you saying no to?The single question that cuts through any overloaded to-do list.
17What did they give up?The colleague who mocked everyone's cars. And, at thirty-eight, still lived with his parents.
18EfficiencyThere's little point making something ineffective more efficient. People forget the order.
19Be a little selfishThe good kind. Building the team, and the self, you'd actually want to be part of.
20What happened to get here?Two star hires joined a scrappy start-up and complained about the lack of free cereal.
21Widen your awarenessUnderstand how the work really moves and you'll be caught out far less often.
22We see what we want to seeObserving rather than perceiving. Harder than it sounds.
23A good business enhancesThe acid test: is the work enriching your life, or quietly doing the opposite?
24Earn respectThe leader who wanted people to “die trying to hit their sales targets”. No thanks.
25Clear only if knownLong words don't make you look clever. They make you look like the other thing.
26Don't complainIt feels good for a moment, then hands all your power to the situation.
27Requiring an apologyOn deciding, early, simply never to do the thing that needs one.
28What do people value?The real values of a company are never the ones printed on the poster.
29Over confidenceThe corporate world has a name for people who don't give a damn what anyone thinks.
30Data driven or it doesn't existLet data inform the decision. Don't hand it the steering wheel.
31A reflection of youTeams become their leader. Draw the circle around yourself first.
32Karma — and seagullsMalcolm swung punches at a seagull over some chips. The seagull came back. With hundreds of friends.
33We are all connectedEveryone in a business is pushing and pulling on everyone else, all day long.
34Accentuate strengthsStop polishing the weaknesses that were never holding you back anyway.
35Don't bring added dramaPlenty will arrive on its own. No need to go out looking for it.
36Don't criticise othersIf I'm criticising someone, who's criticising me? And am I happy about that?
37Everyone you meetThe kind ones and the difficult ones both had a hand in making you.
38Gaining knowledgeInformation is easy to collect. Knowledge is what happens when you actually do the thing.
39Stop clearing upMarcus cleaned up after his cat. Then the neighbourhood's cats. Then everyone at work.
40Be a wonderful asset to othersWorth remembering the moment you're tempted to take the shortcut.
41Mistakes make us betterOnce it's happened it's in the past. The only thing left to do is learn from it.
42Give recognitionNever take the limelight from the people who did the actual work.
43Develop thick skinSomeone, at some point, will try to make you feel small. Here's how to let them fail.
44This is itIt is what it is. Lean into where you really are, then choose the next step from there.
45People choose a leaderA leader is just someone with followers. So — why would anyone follow you?

What you get

A proper little object

45
short pieces — stories, poems, observations
90+
original posters, two with every chapter
130+
pages, in full colour
1
lifetime to dip into
Print edition Take a Day Off — in your hands £9.99
  • A5, full colour, printed on gloss paper
  • Every chapter with its two posters
  • Posted to you — UK shipping
Digital edition Take a Day Off — read anywhere £6.99
  • Full-colour PDF, the complete book
  • Instant download after checkout
  • Read anywhere in the world, on any device

Each chapter is paired with two original posters, designed by me: one composed, one raw.

The zine — print & digital

Take a Day Off

Grow in your career and do good work. But take some time off too. Work will still be there tomorrow — and this is a good thing to have by the kettle in the meantime.

A5 · full colour · 45 short pieces · over 130 pages

Who it's for

Anyone who spends their days at work and suspects there might be a saner, more human way to go about it. Managers and the managed. People building something of their own. Anyone who's ever sat in the 10am meeting and considered the sugar shakers. Anyone who wants their finite human resources of time, energy and attention to be spent more wisely.

It's the first of a series of zines from Cultivated – a small British studio exploring work, noticing, attention and human potential. If you like this one, there's more.

"Life is not all about work, nor all about leisure, nor all about anything. There is a tension to manage. And taking a day off can help you with that." — from the book

Photos of the book

Some images from the book.