Good Burdens by Christina Crook

Good Burdens by Christina Crook

From the "Marie Kondo of Digital" comes a thoughtful book about realigning our energies, increasing intentionality, and prioritizing our well-being in the digital age.

It's time we choose joy over fear. Empowerment over anxiety. JOMO over FOMO. How do we get there? By taking up good burdens.

The things we're most proud of in life - the child we're raising; the marathon we completed; the major project we hit out of the park - these required all of us: all of our attention, all of our loves, all of our effort. Could we control the outcome? No. Were we all in? Hell, yes. These effortful pursuits are what digital well being pioneer Christina Crook calls "good burdens".
In thoughtful prose, Christina Crook's insightful follow up to the acclaimed The Joy of Missing Out makes the case for increasing intentionality in our day to day lives, unlocking the building blocks of joy, and offering concrete solutions for flourishing in the digital age. Using historical data, real life stories from leading mindful tech leaders and rich personal narrative, Good Burdens advocates for a realignment of our energies, online and off, towards effortful pursuits - cultivating relationships, community, and creative projects that bring lasting joy.
In Good Burdens, Crook will instruct us on:
- Mastering the Algebra of Joy -- how to fill our lives with the warm relationships and right works that bring us more joy
- How to live more fulfilling lives in a world dominated by screen time
- Be our full selves on and offline
- Make the time off our screens as meaningful as possible
- Feel good about the time we spend with ourselves and loved ones
- Counteract online fatigue by prioritizing focal practices like walking, gardening, or other hobbies
- How to build life-giving habits that support our ongoing well-being and success
Good Burdens will provide practical, research-based solutions to help readers begin to reclaim joy, unplugging from toxic influences, and retake decision-making power over their time and emotional energy. It is intended to be a poetic and affirming guide to taking real steps towards joy.

Christina Crook is a poet, essayist, and communications specialist whose work on art, culture, and technology has appeared in publications such as UPPERCASE, CBC.ca, Vancouver Magazine, Today's Parent, MUSE, Geez, Faith Today, and the Literary Review of Canada. She turned off her email, turned off her phone's data, and bid goodbye to the Internet for 31 days in 2012. Christina's love for studying the convergence of technology, relationships, and joy was inspired by this experience, which she documented as the project Letters from a Luddite.