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How to use a day off from work to recharge your energy, focus & motivation
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Benefits of taking time off
People who create a proper work-life balance experience less work-related fatigue, lower rates of procrastination, and even better mental and physical health.
Time away from work improves problem-solving skills and improves creativity.
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Taking time off
Binge-watching TV can make you feel more anxious, stressed, and impact your sleep.
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Do nothing (on purpose)
Purposeful idleness is no small task. A few tips:
- Start with small sessions and take the time to build up your endurance.
- To help you do nothing, keep your devices out of reach (or out of the room) and re-orient your furniture away from the TV and out a window.
- Try open-ended toys or games like kinetic sand that promote idleness.
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Engage in “Deliberate Rest”
It means engaging with restful activities that are often vigorous and mentally engaging.
Deliberate rest activities help you relax and recharge as they focus on something tangential (or completely unrelated) to your work. Examples: playing chess, painting, editing photos, etc.
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Tasks you;re putting off
Committing to crossing one of them off of your to-do list on a day off can improve your overall well-being.
Whether you’ve been putting off answering an email, calling a friend, writing up your personal budget, or anything else, a day off is a great time to catch up.
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Do nothing (on purpose)
Too many of us equate doing something with being busy. We don’t need to fill every moment of our lives—both at work and at home—being productive.
Engaging in doing nothing can help you be more creative. It can also make you more productive and focused when you return to work as you’ve had time to get out of your head, disconnect, and see the bigger picture.
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Engage in “Deliberate Rest”
Deliberate Rest means engaging with restful activities that are often vigorous and mentally engaging.
For example, Winston Churchill and Victor Hugo painted while Leo Tolstoy played chess.
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Catch up on that one thing
Most of us put off tasks that stress us out. Unfortunately, this avoidance kicks off a cycle of procrastination that just causes more stress.
Instead, committing to crossing one of them off of your to-do list on a day off can improve your overall well-being.
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Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Why we don't take time off
- We think more work should equal more output: we see productivity not as doing more with less. But simply doing more.
- We’re afraid of being “left behind”: not only could we miss out on some important conversation, but we worry that we’ll be left behind.
- Work has become a larger part of our identity: we feel personally connected to the work we do. Taking time away opens up all sorts of questions that can be hard to face.
Deliberate rest
It is a play on the term “deliberate practice” and it means engaging with restful activities that are often vigorous and mentally engaging.
It is not a continuation of work, but a way to find activities that let you recharge from your workday, while still being mentally productive.
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Being purposeful with your day
Time management is about taking control of the time you do have available and using it optimally for productivity while creating balance.
How to plan your day
Much advice about time management is about creating a to-do list, reminding you what you want to do. However, it's more important to use a schedule, which tells you when you're going to do it.
- Create "bookends" for each day. Consider your morning and evening routines, then "block" in time for your most important tasks. For example, a 2-hour writing-block every morning after breakfast.
- Set aside time for your most important projects. The object is to be purposeful about what and when you're going to do something.
- Schedule in breaks. A schedule has to be realistic. That means including time for breaks, food, exercise, social time, and other "non-school" tasks that keep you happy.
Be aware of how you’re spending your time
To build a better time management system, you need to know what you currently spend your time on. You need to know where you're losing time to the wrong things.
To track your time, spend a few days writing a "time log" to track how you spend your day.
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Personal Productivity Curves
A lot of the internal things that affect our productivity are out of our control. Our energy, focus, and motivation follow their own path or “productivity curve” throughout the day.
Energy curves
We’re naturally more energetic and motivated at specific times of the day. Researchers call this our Circadian Rhythm. Every person’s rhythm is slightly different, but the majority follow a similar pattern.
- Waking up. Our energy levels start to naturally rise.
- Around 10 am. We’ve hit our peak concentration levels that start to decline and dip between 1-3 pm.
- Afternoon. Our energy levels rise again until falling off again sometime between 9–11 pm.
90 Minute Cycles
We work best in natural cycles of 90-120 minute sessions before needing a break. When we need a break, our bodies send us signals, such as becoming hungry, sleepy, fidgeting, or losing focus.
If you ignore these signs and think you can just work through them, your body uses your reserve stores of energy to keep up. It means releasing stress hormones to give an extra kick of energy.