Author Guide · Lisanne Swart
Books Written by Jenny Odell
Jenny Odell is a multidisciplinary artist based in Oakland, California, whose two books make a connected argument about attention: first, that our capacity for it has been quietly monetized by the platforms we use daily, and second, that the way we understand and value time itself is a similarly manufactured construct we’ve mistaken for nature. Both books are less about self-improvement than about refusing the terms of the productivity economy altogether.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 books · Nonfiction · Attention · Updated August 2026 · ~5 min read
Quick answer
Jenny Odell has written two books: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (2019) and Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock (2023). Start with How to Do Nothing — it’s her breakthrough book and the one that introduces the ideas Saving Time later builds on.
Key facts
- Role: Multidisciplinary artist and writer, based in Oakland, California
- Books written: 2, published 2019 and 2023
- Recognition: How to Do Nothing was named one of Barack Obama’s “Favorite Books of 2019”
- Best-known book: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (2019)
- Background: Also works as a visual artist; her writing has appeared in The Atlantic and The New York Times
Why trust this list: Every book below is one I’ve read in full. Curated by Lisanne Swart.
In this guide
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Odell’s breakthrough book argues that our attention is the most valuable and most overdrawn resource we have, and that platforms designed to capture it treat “doing nothing” as a failure state rather than a necessary human capacity. Drawing on art criticism, bird-watching, and political theory, she makes the case for withdrawal from productivity culture as a genuinely political act, not just a personal wellness choice.
A New York Times bestseller and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year it was published. Denser and more academically wide-ranging than most books in this genre — closer to a manifesto than a self-help book, despite how it’s often shelved.
Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock
Odell’s follow-up asks a question left open by How to Do Nothing: if you successfully disconnect from the attention economy, how do you actually reclaim the time you get back? She traces the clock and the concept of “time is money” to their industrial origins, arguing that our sense of time as a scarce, sellable resource was built for profit rather than being natural or inevitable.
A genuine sequel in argument rather than just theme — where How to Do Nothing diagnoses the problem, Saving Time goes further upstream to ask why we think about time the way we do at all.
Frequently asked questions
From the bookshelf
Find your next book — hand-picked, not algorithmically sorted.
If real attention as resistance is your thing, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author pages, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
