Days of rest pt. 2

 Days of rest pt 2

Overwork is not effective. Pushing your body to the absolute max is necessary at times to see the most growth, but we need a time afterward of recovery and reflection.

Before, I talked about how pushing yourself to the limit will create a new limit when you take time to rest. Today, I will talk about how rest allows you to become more motivated when you have recovered.

First off, what is the purpose of rest? I used to be a firm believer that if I took a rest day, all of the progress I had made to get there would be erased. Now, I look at a rest day as a scenic overlook on the way to the summit. It allows you to recover, reflect, and remotivate yourself.

How do we know when to rest? For me, it has become more and more apparent when I need time off. Lack of motivation, lack of creativity, and lack of information retention are the three things that show me I need rest. So let’s break down the signs of each one.

We have all lacked motivation at some point. It is something that is possible to work through at times, but other times, working through it simply causes ineffective work. Lack of motivation stems from feeling like you have reached a block on the work you’re doing. You have worked so hard that you don’t think that it is paying off anymore or you don’t feel like you can get any further.

How can we combat that feeling? A day of rest can help regain motivation, but sometimes a change is needed. I have noticed personally that a change in routine can help regain motivation. For example, people who work out get bored of doing the same routine each day. Getting bored makes them no longer go to the gym even though motivation could easily be regained by changing the routine.

A lack of creativity can put a stop to any progress we are making. Creativity is what drives us to continue working through challenges and creating new things. But sometimes, we lose all creativity. 

How do we rediscover our creativity? For me, a change of atmosphere is something that seems to work. I put myself in a new workspace, or bring new art into my workspace, or listen to new music while doing work. Refreshing your workspace may help you regain some creativity and help you continue to feel motivated.

The last sign of needing rest I see is a lack of information retention. When I am no longer comprehending the words I am hearing or processing the information I am intaking, I know I need to change something.

How do we help with information retention? Obviously the first answer is rest. We usually are unable to focus because of lack of sleep. But there are other ways to help. One, for example, is the pomodoro technique. This practice is done by working undistracted for twenty-five minutes, followed by five minutes of rest. This technique will allow the brain to completely focus on work for those twenty-five minutes because it knows that it will get to rest eventually. By providing an ending point to the focus time, we are able to work harder and more efficiently.

So we talked about many different ways of overcoming blocks in our work, but the main point of this was to recognize when you need rest. Obviously, the brain needs rest to continue to be productive. But when you come out of the rest period, try some of these strategies for regaining your drive to create.

~Thank you for reading. My goal is to help teach others ways to better themselves while doing the same for myself. This is The Exploration.~