Are you feeling listless, tired, in need of a break? ‘If only I had the time’ we think, before quickly pushing on to the next task on our schedules.
What you have just done, with allowing that simple passing thought, is wear yourself out just that little bit more. Perhaps, even, made yourself less productive, less efficient, and less well. Short-term it may not show, but long-term you could be building up significant issues.
That’s why this blog looks at the importance of rest and recovery, with a series of steps you can put in place that will make a big impact.
For many of us, the intensity of everything going on during this “return to work/workplace” period, or the blurring of the boundaries when working from home – has made things even less clearly defined. Now it always seems to be work, and more work. But sometimes it’s also pushing ourselves to be the perfect parent or carer, the friend who is always there at the drop of a hat to do anything that is needed, or the health and fitness advocate who just never seems to pause or stop.
Rest is not an indulgence
Whatever the reason we keep pushing our minds and our bodies to do just that little bit more, going over the edge and then finding we simply cannot slow down or pull back. What we have not realised, or rather what we have forgotten, is just how important it is to rest. Not as an indulgence but as an absolute necessity if we are to build and sustain our personal resilience.
We must adjust our mindset to stop feeling guilty when we want to chill out, take a break, do nothing except sit on the sofa. We must realise that whilst it can be good to be busy, to have an enjoyable and interesting job, to look after others, and to take regular exercise, it is equally important to rest. By rest we mean more than a snatching a few minutes here and there, we mean proper, prolonged, and deep rest.
The importance of rest
We can look to sports science to understand the importance of rest. The Recovery Principle asserts that athletes need adequate time to recuperate from training and intense periods of competitive sport. In fact, an athlete’s ability to recover from workouts is just as important as the workout itself or the outstanding final performance on the sports field or athletics track.
We are beginning to understand this a little more, at least in the physiological domain. How long it takes our heartbeat to return to resting rate after exercise is now a measure more of us take seriously thanks to our wearable devices and the myriad of other exercise trackers. Pushing ourselves is fine, working at “peak” for short periods has positive health benefits – but for a short period, not day in and day out.
The best athletes take time to recover and to relax and build it in to their training programme. Exercise reduces the body’s energy store, or muscle glycogen and causes the muscle to break down. Rest gives time for the muscles to recover, to replenish energy stock and repair tissue damage. The respect sports athletes have for their body is nothing to do with inflated ego, it’s all to do with recognising that to perform well the body needs to be nurtured.
Whilst athletes and serious fitness advocates do learn to push themselves to their limits they do so gradually, in a controlled way and under supervision. Between each step is time for proper rest and recovery and everything is carefully planned.
Reading the signs of psychological stress
What do we do? Far too often we charge about, ignoring the warning signs our bodies send out and taking ourselves beyond our limits in the hope that we can keep it up.
Psychologically the impact of pushing ourselves too hard without giving ourselves time to rest and recover is less well understood, and we do not read the signs nor is it easy for others to spot our distress until it is often too late. Psychological stress is a sneaky and sly enemy. It creeps up on us and only when we are at what is termed a “tipping point” do we come to recognise the problem. By then it is often too late, the tipping point flips, and it becomes harder to climb the mountain to recovery.
We can do something about this, immediately, simply, and with no effort and very little cost. By recognising that rest and recovery is essential, not a luxury, and is not only good for us but good for those around us as well, then we can take a few decisive steps to have maximum impact:
Flick the personal off button
Say to yourself, as well as others, “I am switching myself off for a while, or the afternoon”. Then do just that. Stop what you are doing and simply do nothing at all. You will find it hard at first, being busy is habit forming, but simply taking this step two or three times per week, at least for an hour each time, is a great way to rest and recover.
When you switch back on again you will notice the difference and you will recognise the benefit to your mood as well as to your efficiency. You will gain a greater sense of perspective.
Timetable Fun-time
Having fun is a serious matter! It is closely associated with creativity, innovation, and ingenuity – it’s why 3M give employees 15% of their time to ‘be creative’ and for idea sharing and how we have Scotch Tape and the Post-it-note[1]. It’s why employers such as Google and Games Workshop have leisure time rooms because they want their employees to embrace creativity, and to learn and develop through play.
Leisure can be active or passive, it can be structured or unstructured; watching TV or playing sport, but fun and laughter are good for us – when we are happy we produce the “feel good” chemicals in our brain which play a vital role in how happy we feel, as well as affecting our movement, memory and focus.
Take your breaks – all of them!
Stop skipping the lunchbreak! Forget working all Saturday afternoon in catch-up mode on the week’s house chores. Small, regular breaks throughout the day and throughout the week are important rest and recovery opportunities. Stop being the ‘busy fool’ and start being the smart athlete. Those breaks improve your wellbeing which in turn improves your productivity.
So, resolve to take that lunchbreak from tomorrow and avoid sliding back a few days later. Build up the habit of giving yourself a break each day without cutting it short or “snatching just a few moments”.
Protect your personal boundaries
We now have a new phenomenon – “leaveism” – where people work during their time off. Have we really developed all that technology, all those labour-saving gadgets to increase the time we have for rest and recovery, not to take advantage of them all? The truth is that it is up to us to put the boundaries around ourselves.
Leave work on time – we know that protecting work-life balance has been key to maintaining health and wellbeing during lockdown. Similarly, if you look after others or seem to be constantly met by the plea “could you just do this for me?” then say sometimes to people “can it wait, I’ll get to you later?” or even, “No, not this time, I am having a period of rest and recovery”.
Put some personal boundaries in place. Remember, rest & recovery is not an indulgence or a luxury. It is positively what we all need to learn to do more of.
[1] The Innovation Mindset in Action: 3M Corporation. Harvard Business Review
Photo by Link Hoang on Unsplash
