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Cover of Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Essential read

Designing Your Life

How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Apply design thinking to your life: get curious, try things and prototype your way to a career you love.

  • Published 2016
  • Easy read
  • Practical guidance
  • 2 min analysis
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Introduction

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans teach the popular 'Designing Your Life' course at Stanford University. Their book, published in 2016, applies design thinking, the problem-solving approach used to create products, to careers and life decisions.

They argue that there's no single right path; instead, you can prototype different possibilities and build a life that works for you.

Who should read this book?

Students, career changers, people feeling stuck, and anyone at a crossroads.

Helps with: Find purpose and direction, Think and decide more clearly

The central message

Use design thinking: be curious, try things, reframe problems, know it's a process, and ask for help. You can design a meaningful life.

Key ideas and concepts

  1. Reframe dysfunctional beliefs

    For example, 'I should know where I'm going by now' becomes 'I'll figure out where I'm going as I go'.

  2. Workview and lifeview

    Write short statements of what work is for and what life is about, then check whether they fit together.

  3. The Good Time Journal

    Track which activities give you energy and engagement, and which drain you.

  4. Odyssey plans

    Sketch three very different five-year lives: your current path, a plan if that disappeared, and a wild-card plan.

  5. Prototyping

    Test ideas through conversations with people living them and small experiences before making big decisions.

Deeper analysis

Designing Your Life is practical, encouraging and full of useful exercises. By applying design thinking to careers, Burnett and Evans take pressure off finding the one right answer and replace it with curiosity and experimentation. The odyssey plans and prototype conversations are especially valuable for students and career changers.

The approach assumes a degree of freedom, time and financial security that not everyone has, and some exercises feel more suited to Stanford students than mid-career parents. Some ideas will be familiar to readers of career books. Still, it's a refreshing and practical way to approach life decisions.

Practical applications

  • Write your workview and lifeview.
  • Keep a Good Time Journal for a week.
  • Create three odyssey plans.
  • Have a prototype conversation.
  • Reframe one dysfunctional belief.

Your 7-day action plan

  1. Day 1

    Write your workview: what work is for and what good work is.

  2. Day 2

    Write your lifeview: what life is about and why you're here.

  3. Day 3

    Start a Good Time Journal, noting energy and engagement.

  4. Day 4

    Draft three different odyssey plans for the next five years.

  5. Day 5

    Have a prototype conversation with someone living one option.

  6. Day 6

    Reframe one dysfunctional belief about your career.

  7. Day 7

    Choose one small prototype experience to try next.

Outcomes to expect

What readers who apply this book can realistically take away from it:

  • Greater clarity about work and life
  • Several concrete options to explore
  • Less fear of making the wrong choice
  • Small experiments to test ideas

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Practical, engaging exercises
  • Removes pressure to find one right answer
  • Odyssey plans open up new possibilities
  • Useful for students and career changers

Limitations

  • Assumes freedom and resources not everyone has
  • Some exercises suit students more than others
  • Some familiar career advice

Reflection questions

  1. What energizes you?
  2. What are three possible lives?
  3. What belief holds you back?
  4. Who could you talk to?

About the authors

Bill Burnett

Stanford design professor and co-author of Designing Your Life.

Full profile and books

Dave Evans

Stanford lecturer and co-author of Designing Your Life.

Full profile and books
Cover of Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

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Book details (title, author, year) are factual. Everything under the headings above is MindsetProdigy's own editorial analysis and interpretation, written to help you decide whether to read the book and how to apply it. It is not a substitute for reading the book itself. Last updated September 29, 2026.