From Shadow to Spirit

The "shadow work economy" consists of all the work we now do ourselves which we used to employ others to do.

Shadow work.

Pumping our own gas. Assembling our own furniture. Booking our own travel.

In years past, other people used to do this work for pay. But now we do it ourselves, for free.

Craig Lambert has written a fascinating book called Shadow Work: The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs That Fill Your Day. Clearly, these efforts take time. Lots of time.

Shadow work also includes new duties at our offices, which are constantly being downsized. At home, we go to the Internet for guidance on our medical problems, and we spend countless hours coordinating our kids' extracurricular activities. Over the past two decades, as technology has taken off, new tasks have been crammed into our already full to-do lists.

Sure, some might say that this DIY approach is empowering. But Lambert urges us to look at the consequences of all this "shadow work" or self-service. "Shadow work makes us not just busier, but exhausted and isolated," writes Ann Hulbert in a review of Lambert's book. We are interacting more with our...