REST IS PRODUCTIVE

Clocking insanely long hours, hardly eating throughout the day, and having no time to do anything besides work have become badges of honour in today’s world. Could slowing down, doing less, and taking time to rest actually result in higher productivity and a more sustainable work lifestyle? As it turns out – absolutely.

You may be thinking, “Wait, isn’t ‘rest’ the opposite of ‘work’? How can doing less result in being more productive?”

In order for work to work, there also must be rest, says researcher and Silicon Valley consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang who wrote a book on the importance of balancing work with rest, and how the two actually form an important union.

“Rest is not this optional leftover activity. Work and rest are actually partners. They are like different parts of a wave. You can’t have the high without the low. The better you are at resting, the better you will be at working,” he states.

“Excellent work, particularly of the creative and innovative kind, needs rest and relaxation just as much as it requires time actively engaged in work,” says Max Frenzel, a creative technologist, and co-author of the international bestseller. Time Off. “When we rest, our brain is busy consolidating memories and quietly searching for solutions to problems we encounter.

Are your busiest days really the ones that make you feel the most accomplished? If all of your hard work isn’t working, it might be time to question the common assumption that “busy” = “productive”, the book says.

If you’re doing more and working faster but seeing no good result, it’s time to press “pause”. Discover the benefits of deliberately doing less, and how to optimise rest for ultimate restoration and productivity (Time Off).

– from the article, “Why Restorative Rest Makes You More Productive and How to Achieve It” (Atlassian), edited excerpts