You want to be successful, so you push yourself to do more. You work late into the night, not just concentrating on your career, but on your side hustles and hobbies. The more you do, the more prosperous you’ll be. Right? Well, maybe not.
Many people don’t realize the importance of quality rest to their success. Longer hours are not something to brag about. They can actually be detrimental to your health and productivity. Read on to learn how rest helps you physically and mentally prepare for your day ahead.
1. Sleep Is Productive
Many people think that sleep is a time for the entire body to shut down and rest. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Your body is active while you are soundly sleeping. During sleep, your body heals itself. Your heart slows, so that it can rest. Changes to your blood pressure improve cardiovascular health, while tissues in your body grow stronger and repair themselves. Hormones are formed that aid the immune system, so that your body can fight off infections. While you sleep, your body is making physical improvements and repairs to itself.
Beyond the physical aspects helped by sleep are the mental enhancements. Sleep improves your mental health, the functioning of your brain, and your mood. During sleep, your brain works on maintaining and forming solid memories. Through this process, you are better able to learn and retain information, and you gain problem-solving skills. These abilities make it possible to improve your productivity.
When you get the recommended eight hours of sleep each night, you should awaken feeling recharged and refreshed. If you don’t, take action to improve your ability to rest. Try sleep gummies or similar drug-free sleep treatments. Or check with your doctor to rule out sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy.
2. Rest Reduces Symptoms of Burnout
Reaching top productivity means pushing hard, right? Not always. The answer’s not as clear cut as you might think. While short bursts of going full force are fine, continuing at such a pace is detrimental to your productivity. It can also affect your health and morale. You’ll feel overly busy, worn down, and stressed. Eventually, if you continue at this rate, you’ll simply burn out.
Burnout is when you’ve worked yourself too hard for too long. You’ll feel irritable, be physically drained, and be unable to focus on tasks at hand. You may also lose motivation to continue working on projects or tasks, making it difficult to progress at work. In severe cases, you’ll feel overwhelmed and even despair regarding your work and life in general.
Burnout is directly related to a severely disproportionate work-life balance. Overworking does not equal success, but rather it’s quite the opposite. To fix the situation and regain your energy, productivity, and happiness, you need to take a step back from your job. Take a few days off. Say “no” to new projects or speak to your manager about cutting your workload.
Be sure to set boundaries regarding your personal time. Don’t take phone calls or answer emails after hours. Prioritize your family, hobbies, and friends. You’ll soon feel more refreshed and be ready to take on the workday with renewed energy.
3. Rest Allows You to See the Big Picture
If you work without taking a break to review your situation, you may end up working hard on the wrong thing. For instance, suppose your team is working double time to meet a deadline. They put their heads down and simply work on the project, completing one task after another to reach completion. However, when they finally finish, they realize they misunderstood one major aspect of the project. Now the whole thing needs to be reworked.
Taking a break to rest allows you and your team to review key points in the work at hand. Rather than blindly pushing through, you can study the requirements and look over the work done up until that point. Instead of getting mired in the small details, you can review the big picture.
Regardless of how little time you have until the deadline, you need to plan for some downtime. Consider what is working and what isn’t. Figure out if you’re on the correct path. Take time to ask if your goal is still the same as the project goals. Is there something you should do differently? What is going well? Take moments of rest and ask these and similar questions mid-project or every week.
Getting Quality Rest
Getting enough quality sleep requires effort. Prepare your room for a good night’s rest by keeping it dark, cool, and quiet. Limit caffeine and alcohol intake toward evening. Shut off screens like TVs, tablets, and cellphones at least an hour before bedtime. The blue light emitted from these devices can interfere with your sleep cycle.
You should take steps to make sure that your rest is restorative too. Begin by clearing your mind of all of the heavy topics that are weighing you down. Journal, write a to do list, or meditate. Follow these tips and those above to ensure a restful sleep, and that will lead to a productive tomorrow.
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