When you genuinely love what you do and want to succeed, sacrificing your rest in order to spend more time at work can feel like an easy trade—unfortunately, this is not the case.
If you struggle to prioritise your rest and switch off after work, you’ve come to the right place.
what does ‘rest’ look like?
When we think of ‘rest’, we probably picture a Sleeping Beauty-style nap on a magical cloud of your greatest hopes and dreams.
But it’s important to note here, that when we say rest, we are NOT just referring to sleep—if you’re looking for a guide for a better night’s sleep, this article will probably disappoint you.
Rest is time that is spent pausing, recharging, and exerting minimal energy—typically alone.
For some, rest means lying down and staring at the wall while you ponder your deepest thoughts.
For some, it’s baking a cookies and cream cheesecake with the kids.
No matter what your rest looks like—it’s super important that you get it.
why do we need to rest?
Key word: NEED.
Aside from the obvious physiological benefits, rest is super important for our mental and emotional health.
It gives us time to collect our thoughts, recharge our minds, and replenish our energy—all of which are super important if we want to continue driving our careers forward.
how can we prioritise our rest time when we’re always busy?
1. set your boundaries and communicate them.
Your boundaries are guiding principles for daily decision making. If they are not set and communicated effectively, they are going to mean very little to you and the people in your life.
Wherever you can, be proactive in your approach to setting boundaries. Take the time to think about the season of life you’re currently in, and all the things you need to keep your health, mindset, and relationships running well.
With that said—life happens, and we can’t pre-plan every outcome. When life inevitably happens, we also need to take the time to reflect on it, and assess whether we need to implement new boundaries, or adjust our current ones.
Boundaries are NOT a ‘one-and-done’ situation. They’re a part of a process that will evolve and change along with your circumstances. Having healthy and open conversations about your boundaries regularly is super important—especially in a professional setting.
2. say no to things without over-explaining yourself.
Newsflash—we don’t actually have to say yes to every opportunity.
The inability to say no is quite common among busy people—mainly because we often feel like saying no will change people’s perception of us, or we will somehow fail if we don’t give everything a try.
But if something is pushing—or worse, breaking—your boundaries or forcing you to sacrifice your rest time consistently, it’s time to politely decline.
On that note—most of the time, we don’t owe others an in-depth explanation when we say no.
We should explain if we are cancelling something that we have previously said yes to, but in most other scenarios, a lengthy explanation and apology aren’t necessary.
Avoid over-explaining if:
- The reason you are declining is personal in nature.
- Explaining will break your boundaries.
- You don’t feel it’s justified.
- You have previously said no to the same question from the same party.
3. where possible, ditch your devices.
“Just one more email”—they’re the famous last words that we all know and love.
If you struggle to switch off at the end of the day, try implementing a device-free policy, or turn off access to all of your work-related apps at the same time every day.
Cutting off work-mode at the source is pretty effective, provided you stick to your policy and don’t replace your social media scrolling time with another non-restful task.
4. schedule it in.
If you thrive with a thoroughly planned day or week, be vigilant about including rest in your schedule.
Not only will you be more likely to actually rest—having a constant visual reminder may actually make you less likely to say yes to spontaneous plans that would lead you to sacrifice your rest time.
5. get some accountability.
Whether it’s a trusted coworker, fellow workaholic, or your mum—if all else fails, having someone who you trust to help keep you accountable can be super helpful for some people.
Ask someone to regularly check in with you and ask how you’re going with prioritising your rest. Knowing the chat is coming up can help to keep you on track.
But, this method definitely doesn’t work for everyone—especially if we don’t establish firm boundaries with our accountability partners.
As soon as the chats start to resemble ‘nagging’, we’re far less likely to want to follow through. Be sure to take the time to define how often you want to talk about it, and to what extent.
Now, go forth and rest, friends!
For more handy tips on maintaining healthy boundaries for your business, check out this blog.