How to Design Your Life (and Business) | 'Designing Your Life’ by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans | Book Club | 307
In this episode of the Making Good Book Club, we dive into Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans—an inspiring book that applies design thinking to life itself. We unpack how to build “Odyssey Plans,” map your energy + engagement, prototype ideas, and turn choices into playful, iterative experiments (instead of stress-fueled ruts).
We share how the book shifted my view on career, marketing, and life—and reminded me that we get to choose our path, even if what we’ve built already feels like it’s carved in stone.
What’s included in this episode:
What the “You Are Here” sign symbolizes—and why your starting point matters
How to identify tasks that drain or energize you
Building your dashboard with Health, Work, Play, and Love—enough categories to be powerful, not overwhelming
What wayfinding is and why direction > endless planning
Building a team of supporters—because life design isn’t meant to be solo
And much more
Key takeaways:
Start from where you are. The “You Are Here” mindset frees you from feeling locked into past decisions.
Track energy + engagement. Use the Good-Time Journal to discover what truly fuels you in your work—and what drains you (especially in marketing!).
Dream in threes. Odyssey Plans help you explore wildly different futures: your current trajectory, a fallback, and a bold “no-limits” version.
Prototype your next steps. Talk to people doing the thing you might want to do, or test mini versions of your business or life idea—going hands-on is more telling than endless planning.
Choose and move forward. Yes, deciding feels hard—but staying stuck is worse. Make the choice, let go, and remember that anything can be prototyped again.
Links and resources mentioned:
This month’s book: Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
Next month’s book: Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
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