The world teaches us that long hours are inevitable and inescapable, that overwork is a badge of honor and resting is a weakness. Super successful people rise and grind, are always on and never stop. Deep down, we know this is unhealthy and unsustainable. But is there an alternative?
[The Way We Work]
Downtime is deeply undervalued in today's 24/7 world, but it hasn't always been this way. Virtually every ancient society defined the good life as balancing work and rest, and recent research in neuroscience and psychology has shown that rest strengthens our brains, enhances our learning and stimulates our creativity. History's most accomplished scientists, writers and military leaders worked far fewer hours than we do today and built daily routines full of downtime. People like naturalist Charles Darwin and geneticist Barbara McClintock, who both took daily walks, knew that work and rest are not opposites, they are partners. You won't fully flourish until you can master both.
Here's where you can start. First, rethink what rest is. Getting enough sleep at night is key, and 20-minute naps are wonderful for a boost. But when it comes to taking downtime in the day, the most restorative rest isn't found on a couch or in front of a screen. The best rest is active: exercise, hobbies, walks. These recharge our mental and physical batteries more effectively and give us more stamina and resilience than being a couch potato. Rest is natural, but it's also a skill. It's something we can practice and improve over time. Just as athletes, singers and Buddhist monks use breathing to run faster, project their voices and calm their minds, we can use rest to boost our creativity and recovery.
Second, integrate it into your daily work. Athletes get the best results combining intensive training and recovery. Likewise, creative people should layer periods of distraction-free, deep work with periods of deliberate rest. So design a routine that lets you focus and get into flow for four or five hours a day, every day. Make those periods more intensive, not longer, by killing distractions. Give yourself permission to turn off email and messages and concentrate on what matters. And then, if you have the flexibility, give yourself a nice, long, active break. It will give your creative subconscious a chance to work on unsolved problems while you recover and generate those insights and aha moments that turn good ideas into breakthroughs. And if you don't have that flexibility, find a way to make sure that when you're off from work that you apply these same principles to at least part of your downtime.
Third, tap into deep play. Creative, passionate people need breaks from their work, but those breaks have to be just as compelling as their work or they won't take them. Many scientists and CEOs are amateur painters, musicians or chefs on the side. These are hobbies that provide the same sense of accomplishment, control, mastery and flow that they get when work goes really well, but in a different environment and with a clear, quick reward. Often, their interests date from childhood, which makes them even more meaningful. So embrace an activity that makes you feel alive and involved in the world. It's not a distraction. It'll give you new experiences and the same pleasures and rewards as work at its best, Without the compromises or ambiguities that often cloud things.
Fourth, make rest social. The working world isn't designed for rest. We have to take it. And one of the most powerful ways to guarantee that we make time for rest is to do it with others. So start work early and meet a colleague for a walk in the afternoon. Or team up with your partner to perform a tea ceremony. Or make a childcare-swapping arrangement with a friend to give you both more time for rest. Remember, it's not easy for busy, highly driven people to rest. It requires developing new practices and giving them time to become habits. You can't rush it. Just as it takes time to settle into a new job or home, your mind needs time to start harnessing the power of rest. Don't beat yourself up if you aren't already doing anything like this. There's no better time to start than now.
