📚 Tired As F*ck Book Club - Week 7 [the end!]
- 22 hours ago
- 4 min read
Week 7 (May 11 – 17)
📖 How to Figure Out if You're Allowed to Be Tired → How to Live (p. 222–284/end)
Alright, a little over a week delayed... here we go 😅
Final week of the book, final recap, and some wrap-up thoughts!
😴 How to Figure Out if You're Allowed to Be Tired
"Whether or not you think you deserve to be or not, you're burnt out." (p.224)
I sort of love this quote because at its core it gets at something really important:
👉 No matter what the intellectual part of your brain thinks, your body still needs food, water, rest, play, and human connection.
Whether or not you've decided you've "earned" those things. Whether or not you've convinced yourself you should need less of them. Whether or not you've determined that someone else has it harder than you.
Your body still has needs.
And both needs & burnout don't magically disappear because your brain decided your exhaustion isn't justified.
Another quote I loved:
"Exhaustion isn't a pissing contest. We can all be exhausted for different reasons. Life is exhausting. And we do not live in a culture that supports and allows for healing from that exhaustion." (p.224)
She also references the book Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price, and if you've ever been to my office, you've probably seen it sitting on my bookshelf 😊 (Fall bookclub pick anyone?)
This quote is also great:
"No matter what, you are allowed to be exhausted and you are allowed to rest." (p.226)
Though none of this is particularly new information, I do appreciate that she integrates some discussion of systemic oppression into this chapter. MANY books focused on "health" or "well-being" completely miss the mark on this, so I appreciate that it's included.
Another passage I highlighted:
"Most of us did not learn to allow, trust, feel and process our emotions. In fact, more likely we learned to fear our emotions and suppress them... And constantly numbing and running from your emotions will always be: exhausting." (p.231)
🌿 How to Reconcile the Privilege of Rest
I liked her definition of rest here:
Rest is "a shift in the way we treat ourselves. It is a deliberate deprogramming from the cult of productivity. It encourages us to remember: I deserve rest. I deserve to recharge... my worth does not come from constant productivity." (p.233)
No notes. Just a solid reminder.
🍷 How to Claim Rest
I appreciated the discussion around alcohol use and rest.
I also liked that she acknowledges the balance between:
showing up
socializing
maintaining relationships
while also recognizing that burnout recovery and rest require making different choices at different times. Its a good reminder that what rest looks like will vary from person to person—and even for the same person, it changes from season to season.
💕 How to Be OK Dying Alone
Surprising sudden pivot into dating! I do appreciate that she challenges the mainstream narrative that dating and online dating are supposed to be "fun."
A lot of people feel exactly the way she describes, and there is often a lot of shame around admitting that in therapy AND I've had enough conversations with clients about dating to know that her experience is far more common than the people enthusiastically declaring, "This is so fun!"
🏃♀️ How to Be Addicted to Busyness
This was a really great little chapter.
Busyness can absolutely become a behavioural addiction—a way to avoid emotions, discomfort, uncertainty, or avoid simply being with ourselves.
I also appreciated her discussion of the morality attached to busyness versus rest.
10/10 would recommend reading this chapter.
I especially liked this prompt:
"If someone took your busyness/exercise away, what would happen?... If we are terrified of slowing down... it's likely because we are using busyness as a badge of honor, or a distraction, or we're avoiding something deeper." (p.254)
🛋️ How to Sort of Do a Bad Job at Resting
Also a good little chapter.
No notes 😅
🍽️ How to Take Things Off Your (Figurative) Plate
I'm not entirely sure why this became its own chapter—it felt like a continuation of the previous one 🤷♀️
I do like that she continues emphasizing that rest looks different for everyone and that what you need is allowed to change over time (which, yes is sort of repetitive at this point in the book but also, its a message I think is worth repeating a million times over).
I highlighted this prompt/self reflection piece:
"Are you burnt out?
Yes?
Ok,why are you burnt out?
Are there any little things you can do about it?" (p.267)
Simple. Practical. Helpful.
🚧 How to Have Boundaries
Likely no one will be surprised that I found her writing about being self-employed highly relatable. Especially the one-woman-show part.
It is A LOT sometimes.
And also... I wouldn't change it for the world.
And also... it is definitely a lot 😅 ... I say as I sit here spending part of a Saturday before an 8-hour hospital shift responding to emails and following up with health providers...
Capitalism and the cost of existing in 2026 are honestly the worst.
✨ How to Heal Chronic Exhaustion & How to Live
Final thoughts on the final book chapters...
Overall, I'd put this book somewhere in the "meh to good" category.
It didn't grab me and make me desperate to keep reading the way some books do, but I also think it contains a lot of genuinely helpful messages.
The main themes of the book & her discussions were overall really grounded on:
diet culture
restriction
burnout
productivity
rest
And while I didn't always agree with her conclusions—or the way she got there—I found her storytelling engaging enough to keep me reading.
The biggest takeaway from this book is probably also the simplest:
👉 We cannot endlessly push, optimize, restrict, hustle, and self-improve our way into feeling better.
Sometimes what we need is less.
Less pressure.
Less striving.
Less perfectionism.
And more rest.
More nourishment.
More support.
More permission to simply be human.
💛 Final Spring Book Club Thoughts
Thanks for reading along with me through Tired As F*ck.
Whether you read every chapter, listened to the audiobook, skimmed my summaries, or simply followed along from a distance—I appreciate you being here.
Happy end of May 🌷
And keep an eye out... our June 1st launch post for No Bad Parts is coming soon!