Rest – You Owe Yourself That

Oftentimes, we have long days at work, from attending long meetings to sorting the huge paperwork on the table, to quick responses to calls, e-mails, and texts, maintaining clients to facing horrible traffic that makes us sigh in exasperation and annoyance. Work most times can be quite challenging and physically draining too.

Getting enough rest as a successful career person isn’t a myth as there is a great need to balance work and rest, here are a couple of things to do to enable you to achieve the balance:

Delegate responsibilities

Don’t be an I-Can-Do-It-All person; you aren’t Superman or Spiderman, you can’t do it all and your job isn’t to save the world. Are there tasks that can be handled by other people who are also competent and trustworthy to be effective? Outsource and delegate these tasks to them. This will help create more time for you, help you to be more productive, and also prevent burnout.

Don’t take work home

The home has enough stress on its own, don’t add to it by bringing more work home. If you have unfinished work, leave it at the office and get back to it the next day. Your home should be a haven where you can recover after a long day at work; have a hot bath, change into more comfortable clothing, listen to some music or just lie down. You will find yourself more refreshed and ready to face work the next day.

Break down your goals

Those giant goals you’ve set for yourself that look insurmountable, why don’t you break them into smaller ones? Take your most important goals and split them into lesser ones that can easily and realistically be achieved. Instead of setting huge goals for the year, set smaller ones and make it monthly, weekly, or even daily. When you accomplish your daily small goals, you would see yourself smashing the bigger ones and you won’t be overwhelmed with much pressure. Your body would also be grateful.

Rest is not a luxury

Remember the phrase ‘you snooze, you lose’? Let’s change it to ‘you snooze, you win’. Do not underestimate the power of taking a short nap or just putting aside work for at least 30minutes in the office. It has been proven that successful people tap into the power that rest brings, either by napping or just laying down on the couch. In all you do, ensure you don’t squeeze out quality rest time to fit in more work. Snooze and be well-rested – you owe yourself that.

Stay away from your gadgets

We live in a fast-paced world where we can get a lot of things done, as little as ordering a pack of small chops with a flick of the fingers on our phones or tablets. Since this helps us to be more productive, it can also be a major hindrance in giving our bodies the appropriate rest it deserves to function properly. During the daytime make use of your gadgets efficiently but at night, stay away from electronics as much as possible.

Consider a ‘Rest Moment’

Tiredness, restlessness, hunger, mood swings, soreness, lack of concentration, and yawning, are signs your body is telling you that your energy is waning and your body system might shut down. Our body in its way tells us to pause and listen to it. Don’t ignore it. Consider having a moment called the ‘rest moment’, this is a period deliberately set aside for the sole purpose of recharging the body and refraining from activities that make you burnout. Learning to rest will make you reap the enormous benefits that’ll make you a more successful person in your career. 

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