Designing Your Life cover art

Designing Your Life

Build a Life that Works for You

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.
More purchase options

Designing Your Life

By: Bill Burnett, Dave Evans
Narrated by: Bill Burnett, Dave Evans
Get this deal

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.

Buy Now for $13.83

Buy Now for $13.83

Brought to you by Penguin.


Change your life this year with the simple, scientifically proven method that has already worked for thousands of people.

'Life has questions. They have answers' New York Times

At last, a book that shows you how to build - design - a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage. A well-designed life means a life well-lived. Many of us are still looking for an answer to that perennial question, 'What do I want to be when I grow up?'

Stanford innovators Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who and where we are, our careers and our age. Designing Your Life puts forward the idea that the same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products and spaces can be used to build towards a better life and career by a design of your own making.

'[Designing Your Life] teaches you how to change what's not working by turning ideas on their head' Viv Groskop, author of How To Own The Room

'An empowering book based on their popular class of the same name at Stanford University...this book will easily earn a place among career-finding classics' Publishers Weekly


© Bill Burnett & Dave Evans 2016 (P) Penguin Audio 2016

 Career Success Decision-Making & Problem Solving Personal Development Personal Success Stress Management Career
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic Reviews

A gem amid self-help dross... The authors make the case that design skills such as reframing, prototyping and brainstorming can help us make better career and life choices, or undo bad choices before they do more harm. One idea: keep a diary noting how much you enjoy each task — and think about how to do more of the tasks you love
You’re going to learn how to find a fulfilling career. You’re going to learn how to better navigate life’s big-moment decisions and kill your “wicked problems” dead... Design thinking, as rendered in the book, is about treating life in a more improvisational way. It’s a welcome counterbalance to the data-driven, engineering mind-set gripping the culture. Follow Mr. Burnett’s and Mr. Evans’s teachings, and the anxiety-ridden process of decision making suddenly seems more playful. Their method is experiential and accepts that failure is part of the process
Their philosophy is that by applying a Silicon Valley-tested design approach, we can all build lives that will suit us better – regardless of our age... I sketched my own plans, which unearthed dreams I’d never really articulated, or hadn’t thought about in over a decade. I drew an alternative life, in which I would work with photographers at a gallery or an art publisher. The process gave me an ego boost – maybe I’m not a one-trick pony – and filled me with a sense of possibility that reminded me of being a kid (Hattie Crisell)
Life has questions. They have answers
A Designing Your Life class has become one of Silicon Valley's most popular courses... Two academic studies have now proved its ability to cut anxiety on the career front and help people each their goals whatever their age... Crucially, your life is not a problem to be solved. It's an experience, and the fun comes from designing it (Christina Patterson)
Numerous studies suggest we’re generally miserable at work... The book was born out of the eponymous course Burnett and Evans teach at Stanford and uses techniques that anyone familiar with design thinking will instantly recognize to allow us to take control of our lives... With change likely to be a growing presence in all of our lives, the basic design principles outlined above could prove invaluable in helping us to create the kind of life we want (Adi Gaskell)
[Bill Burnett and Dave Evans] bring a rigorous approach to rethinking your life (with a major focus on work) and have been credited with revolutionising careers coaching in American universities... [Designing Your Life] teaches you how to change what’s not working by turning ideas on their head. I think of it as Bill and Dave’s Excellent Adventure: How To Stop Driving Yourself Mad With Unnecessary Drama And Anxiety (Viv Groskop)
Everyone should read this book! (Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa)
All stars
Most relevant
These guys know exactly what they’re talking about and how to deliver successful strategies for anyone facing the “What should I do with my life?’ question.
So easy to listen to and fun to implement. 👏

Fabulous * Practical and comprehensive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This has given me a way to rebuild my life from a very bad place

very helpful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really liked life design stories that the authors present and give the tools how to do it yourself.

Great stories and tools

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you consider the audio edition of Designing Your Life to be better than the print version?

I have only listened to the audio version and will be using the print version as an ongoing resource.

What other book might you compare Designing Your Life to, and why?

Designing Your Life inspired me this year the way A Beautiful Constraint inspired me in 2016. Both strongly academically based, yet highly pragmatically pitched; multiple case studies added credibility throughout, and the product of mature collaboration.

Which character – as performed by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans – was your favourite?

Bill and Dave offer complementary styles and as we worked through the book I started getting excited as I approached each new Chapter, presented alternately by the authors, in anticipation of reconnecting with my increasingly familiar author/friends. Dave's sense of humour colours every sentence without compromising the gravitas of the content. Bill's slightly more monotonic and steady delivery adds a sense of thoughtful seriousness to the mix. Despite the swapping for each chapter, continuity is maintained faultlessly and the sense of collaboration is constant.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The emotional reaction was not one of sadness or ecstasy as in a "laugh or cry" response, Moreso one of exhilaration and enthusiasm about a newly discovered approach to career and life development.

Stimulating, inspiring and highly digestible.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
it has a few good pointers that might help you to shape a better mindset when dealing with life's adversities, definitely worth while to go through the exercises, recommend to people who are looking for a change in their life / career but don't know where to start.

Some good practical advice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.