Art of Manliness: Shadow Work and the Rise of Middle-Class Serfdom

Shadow work: the stack of jobs we never volunteered for, chores that showed up in our lives below the scan of awareness

You perform shadow work whenever you do jobs that used to be done by a paid employee, but have now been outsourced to the consumer: pumping gas, booking a travel itinerary, bussing a table, and so on.
it takes “place in the wings of the theater while we are absorbed in the onstage drama of our lives.”

Taken alone, the tasks of shadow work seem laughably trivial. But it’s serfdom by a thousand cuts; together, our shadow work chores have shredded our days into what the author of Overwhelmed calls “confetti time.”

Willpower is a finite resource. You only get so much of the fuel that allows you to focus and gives you the mental energy to tackle the world each day. And what saps this fuel is making decisions, weighing options, and exercising self-control.Shadow work requires all three behaviors, and is thus a huge willpower drainer.

The stuff that’s eating away at their willpower aren’t the things you’d put in a planner, but the overlooked shadow work in the wings.

Our minds need periods of rest where we can say to someone else, “You take care of all the details on this. I just want to enjoy the result!” Corporations love creating shadow work because outsourcing formerly paid jobs to the consumer increases their profits. But we can only take advantage of it if we’re fully aware of the phenomenon and the various ways it’s insinuated its reach into our lives. For most, the shadow work they perform goes unrecognized, though its effects are still felt; it’s as if someone sleepwalks through nightly workouts, and can’t figure out why they’re so fatigued during the day.

What to do:

Develop a new mindset on busyness. Just business alone is counterproductive.
Outsource when you can. The DIY ethic is admirable, but only when you’re doing-it-yourself, for yourself! Putting in time for a corporation doesn’t satisfy the soul. So if they’re going to outsource jobs to you, consider passing the task along and outsourcing it to someone else.
Be a satisficer rather than a maximizer. Maximizers seek out every possibility and weigh every option before making a decision; satisficers pick the first thing they’re happy with and go with it.