MAKE REST A PART OF EVERY DAY
JUST SAY ‘NO’
To carve out more time to rest, we need to reduce the amount we take on. Time perception studies show we tend to believe that in the future we will have more spare time, but this is not true. So cut down on future commitments. For example, if you were invited to a two-day conference in six months’ time, ask yourself what you would think if it were happening in the next fortnight. If fitting it in fills you with dread, then turn it down.
GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION
Think of a period of rest as a prescription for better mental health and wellbeing – and a boost to your overall productivity. Give yourself active permission to do it. When I am working at home, I prescribe myself 15 minutes of gardening in the middle of the day, knowing that I will feel relaxed afterwards and do better work when I return to my desk. In some workplaces, you can’t schedule your own breaks, but still take the breaks you are due and take them in full. Colleagues may seem to be working harder than you, but the evidence suggests you will work more productively after a proper break.
FIND YOUR BEST REST
The same activities don’t work for everyone. Resting doesn’t have to mean sitting on the sofa doing nothing. Some find they need to exert the body before their mind can rest. In The Rest Test, 38% of people found walking restful and more than half said that they rested by spending time out in nature. If that’s not for you, watching TV was also popular, as were daydreaming and practising mindfulness. Reading a book came highest of all.
ACCEPT THAT YOU’LL ALWAYS HAVE A TO-DO LIST
We yearn to get to a place where we have done everything on our to-do lists so that at last we can relax. But we fail again and again. That’s because there will always be something new to do: relatives fall ill, pipes leak, things don’t go to plan at work. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up if we haven’t done everything.
LET YOUR MIND WANDER
We get more chances to rest than we think. I used to regard the time I spent waiting for buses, trains or Tubes, or queuing at the sorting office as precious time wasted. Now I view this time as an opportunity to take a break, to sit and read, to let my mind drift.