Enforcing time for rest and replenishment doesn’t come naturally to most of us, especially in our society. In our world, it’s always a matter of doing more and more. It’s always connected, always cram in more, always respond. All the time.
How often do you take an hour or two just to go for a walk and not read or listen to anything useful? To find silence and time to contemplate? To find space for yourself, to find room to breathe?
We don’t value that, but it’s so important. You can’t function at your best without it.
So we’re going to create the time and enforce it by doing the following:
- Carve out the time for replenishment. Just as you need to block off time for your high-impact tasks, you need to actually block off time for replenishment. What time will you shut down your devices? (Hint: at least an hour before bed.) What time will you sleep? Most people let themselves get too little sleep because they’re hooked on devices, but that affects their sleep and all of the next day. What time will you stop working and instead go for a walk, meditate, exercise, or just find some quiet space? Will you create time for quiet space in the mornings? Block it off and make it happen.
- Enforce it by letting go of the rest. When you get the urge to check messages, email, news, blogs, websites, social media … don’t do it. Block it all out. If you need to check messages and email, block it off in your schedule. If you need to check social media, create a space once a day to do that. You can’t have the habit of always being connected if you want to be focused and impactful, and also have rest time. It’s either the constant connection or the focused, impactful, restful schedule.
- Create a motto: this space is a tremendous gift. The space you create for yourself will not feel great at first — you’ll want to check on things, you’ll want to get more done, you’ll feel guilty for not working, you won’t be present. That’s because your mind is trained to not value rest time, to not value space. It’s trained to do more and more, forever, because that’s what you’ve been doing. But that doesn’t work. So instead, create a motto that values this space. That sees it as a gift. That emphasizes that this moment, just as it is, is enough.
Learn to find the deliciousness in the moments you create of disconnected time. Of not-work time. Of being present with your loved ones, present with yourself. Of moving, being outdoors, getting active.
Only when you can make these changes will you finally have the antidote to overwork. You can do this.