Make Rest Work Harder

Rest is a performance enhancer

A recent study found that managers who had more rest the night before performed better at work the next day.

Participating managers recorded the amount free time they had at night, and rated their performance at the end of each day. Their teams also rated their performance at the end of each day.

Results showed that if the managers (especially first-time managers) had worked late, they would give a lower rating to their own performance at the end of the following day, and their teams would give them a lower rating too. If they’d rested, both their rating and their team’s rating would go up.

Contrary to our always-on culture, rest yields better results.

How can we deepen our understanding of rest so we can use it to recover more effectively?

Our understanding of rest is outdated

The word “rest” comes from the old English for “mile” — the distance after which you might need a sit down, some water or a snack to help you on your journey.

It’s a reminder that the origins of rest come from a time where work was physical, shelter was scarce and rest was needed to refresh the physical body. Fast forward to today — have we really cracked what kind of rest is needed to refresh the mind?

Durham University ran the world’s largest “rest” survey in 2016 and uncovered five activities that consistently ranked “most restful”: reading, sleeping or napping, looking at or being in a natural environment, spending time alone, listening to music. Participants were ask to select from a list including these and other activities typically seen as restful. The ranking reveals that we hold very narrow perceptions of rest as a solo activity that involves low levels of mental activity or social engagement.

Perhaps because of the origins of the word, thinking of something active like playing tennis or chess as “rest” is a stretch for our minds. Are there benefits to expanding the definition of rest beyond slow, sedate activities?

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Get the best out of rest

There’s truth in the old adage “a change is as good as a rest”. According to Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of “Rest — why you get more done when you work less” we’re thinking far too much about rest as a pause, rather than a change in activity.

He gives the example of Winston Churchill, who was a regular oil painter outside of his duties as prime minister. In his book, Painting as a Pastime, he wrote that he knew of no other leisure activity that “more entirely absorbs the mind” and claimed it was “like fighting a battle”.

According to Pang, this means it’s exactly the right level of activity for mental recovery. He calls it “deep play” and it’s “a way of testing your existing skills of observation, strategy and problem-solving in a low-stakes context” — as satisfying as work, but less stressful.

Creative arts, gardening and similar pursuits appeared lower down the list of activities ranked in the rest survey, but much lower than “mindfulness” or “daydreaming”. Pang argues that there are significant benefits to expanding our definition of rest and prioritising creative pursuits over passive pursuits such as watching TV.

The formula is not as simple as “the less you do, the more you recover”. As Winston Churchill’s oil painting shows, the answer is sometimes to do more of the right thing.

Physical activity is mental rest

If a change is as good as a rest, it makes sense that now many of us have more sedentary lives than the average person in Medieval times, rest becomes more active. And whilst we always associate physical activity with physical benefits, Pang emphasises the mental benefits.

In 2015, a German-Finnish study scanned the brains of overweight and obese participants before and after a 3 month weight loss and fitness course. The grey and white matter in their brains, which protects the central nervous system increased in volume as the participants became more physically fit.

A 2012 study showed that as your maximum oxygen capacity increases, so does your episodic memory. Physical activity has the power to increase our mental recovery.

If keeping physically fit keeps your mind fit, how does this impact the day-to-day office worker? The worst thing we can do is flop on the sofa after a long day.

In addition to strenuous exercise or active games, interspersing light movement such as walks or stretches throughout the day is the ideal, and has the dual benefit of refreshing the mind and the body.

A change in environment stimulates the mind

Travel often feels tiring — we joke that we come back from a trip away needing another one. And yet Germany sociologist Sabine Sonntag states that the feeling of “detachment” we get from leaving our everyday routine behind “reduces your stress and susceptibility to burnout”.

Why wait until you next have time off? Shaking up your routine by doing something totally different at the weekend could create this same feeling of detachment and reduce stress levels.

According to Sonntag, vacation time should be split between “relaxation” — activities that help us wind down and “mastery experiences” — stimulating, challenging and rewarding activities such as playing chess. The “absorbing” nature of these activities make them a great way to unwind.

Whether it’s interspersing snorkelling and lying on the beach, rock climbing and looking out at a nice mountain view or reading a book and learning to cook a new dish, doing different activities that relax and challenge you is a recipe for mental recovery.

What is rest ‘not’?

The rest survey tiptoes around the smartphone issue — our quickest route to distraction is always at our fingertips, yet especially in in-between moments, it rarely falls into “relaxation” or “mastery experiences” because it offers a cacophony of distractions. Reading an absorbing article is very relaxing until a notification comes through and interrupts your flow.

According to experts, the main issue may not be what we’re doing on our phones, but what we could be doing instead. The Mayo Clinic argues that screen time stops us engaging in more meaningful rest activities that “use our imagination”, such as “play and creativity” or doing other activities that challenge us and absorb our attention.

Similarly, television is not rated the best quality rest. Research from a UK study shows that regularly watching over three hours of TV each day could lead to cognitive decline in language and memory down the line.

Whilst passive entertainment can feel more relaxing in the short-term, we’re not reaping the benefits of rest versus other creative or physical activities.

Where to start?

Here are some ways to start making rest work harder for you:

• On non-work days, ditch the routine

• Do something you’ve never done before

• Find enjoyable non-work activities that challenge your brain

• Turn “in-between moments” into relaxation moments by switching off notifications or putting down your phone

• Swap TV for drawing, painting or walking

To get better at what we do, we need to do more of what we love.

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