The Art of Rest

Why recovering well is part of leading well

Since my recent book club, I have been thinking a lot about REST.

REST is not just the absence of work; it’s the process that keeps your mind clear, your emotions steady, and your output and ability to innovate high.

We talk a lot about OUTPUT. We track our productivity (tasks completed), biometrics (sleep, readiness), and measure what we do (steps walked, exercise rings closed, meetings attended).

But most of us were never taught how to rest — not really. And the gap between what we produce and how well we recover quietly shapes everything: how well we think and make decisions and how we show up for others.

What might happen if you take rest as seriously as you take output?

Start Here: What Is Rest, for You?

Before we talk strategy, some questions worth sitting with:

•       What is rest, in your own definition?

•       Who taught you how to rest — and is that still working for you?

•       How do you get in your own way when it comes to rest?

•       What would you do to rest if you didn't care what others thought?

•       What have you already tried — and what did you learn from it?

There are no right answers here. But honest ones can improve your awareness about what you need. I have also been working on how to better anticipate when I will need more recovery. I was traveling last week for a fun occasion, but found myself hitting a wall by mid-week. I am curious why I didn’t predict that…

How to Detect When You Need Rest

One of the most practical skills a leader can develop is catching depletion before it becomes a crisis. Your body sends signals long before burnout shows up — if you know what to look for.

Early cues to watch for:

•       Short fuse — reacting faster, with less patience than usual

•       Scrolling more — reaching for distraction without realizing it

•       Re-reading and re-doing — tasks taking longer, errors creeping in

•       Shallow breathing and shoulder tension — the body carrying what the mind hasn't named yet

A few practices that help:

•       Track personal signals — if you use a wearable (Apple Watch, Garmin watch, Oura ring), look at your data daily and tag days with highlights. Look for patterns – they may emerge faster than you'd expect.

•       Schedule recovery the same way you schedule important meetings – block it on your calendar. Maybe block the first 2 hours on your first day back after vacation to catch up and enter your week a bit more gently.

•       Block "non-reaction" time — space in your calendar that isn't spoken for, so you can respond rather than just react.

•       Build a clear transition ritual between roles. The move from clinician to family member, or consultant to creative, deserves a moment of deliberate switching — not just a change of room. Do a box breathing exercise to help with that shift. Here’s a one minute example - https://youtube.com/shorts/iBEr8ERpie8?si=rUXlPDVKVqiflysC

TRY THIS: Once you disconnect from a client call or an intense stretch of work, use your body as a compass.

Pause. Notice. Check in — literally and figuratively — before moving to the next thing.

What do you need to move forward?

What Rest Actually Looks Like

Rest isn't only sleep and it isn't only stillness. Sometimes rest means doing something that adds energy rather than withdrawing it. Here are a few examples that work — small, accessible, and real:

•       Take a walk outside (even a short one — light and movement shift your state quickly)

•       Make a cup of coffee or tea and actually sit with it

•       Eat a healthy snack — your brain notices when it's running low

•       Do a yoga pose: legs up the wall is a particular favorite for active nervous system reset

•       Snuggle with the dog — a small act that gets you moving and out of your head

The goal isn't a perfect recovery routine. It's building a personal menu you can reach for when you notice the signals — something that reliably adds back what the work has drawn down.

A Reframe Worth Carrying

High-achieving people often relate to rest as a reward for enough output, or as something they'll get to eventually. But that framing keeps rest conditional — and the conditions rarely arrive.

The reframe: rest is not the opposite of excellent work. It is part of what makes excellent work possible. Recovery is not a concession. It is infrastructure.

Reframing intentions and mantras — even ones as simple as the above — can interrupt the momentum of overextension before it becomes a pattern. Put it somewhere you'll actually see it.

Affirmation: I recover so I can be present, kind, and excellent for the people who count on me. 

Reminder: Take rest as seriously as output.

Until next time, take good care of the person doing the leading.