The importance of being rested

Somehow, many employees have got themselves into the situation where there is simply no time (between meetings, emails and everything in between) to be able to stop for lunch or even go to the toilet. 

Eat at your desk. Look busy. Apologise for needing a wee. How has this become acceptable?!

Whenever I challenge people to change their routines, I’m always told that it’s easy to say, but not necessarily to do.

To be clear, not only is it easy to do (albeit not immediately, it may need to be planned in advance) it’s critically important too. 

LeBron James - twenty-one seasons in and still upright - naps from noon until two. The most durable athlete of his generation builds a break into the middle of his working day, while many feel faintly criminal about logging off whilst they have a sandwich.

For those who need the research to prove that taking a break is worthwhile, a 2022 meta-analysis found short breaks reliably lift energy and soften fatigue, whilst a 2018 study in the Journal of Applied Psychology tracked call-centre staff against their real sales figures and found that those who took regular micro-breaks performed measurably better - because the breaks lifted their mood, and the better mood did the work - than those that didn’t.  

Rest, it turns out, is not the opposite of work. It's the part that makes the work any good and prevents the burnout that restricts work in the future.