Embracing Rest and Recovery

You’ve made it to the final installment of “Overcoming Overwork,” our six-part newsletter series on strategies for strengthening boundaries around your work life. (If you’d like to start at the beginning, you can do so here.) The content is adapted from an HBR.org article by Malissa Clark, one of the world’s leading scholars on workaholism, overwork, burnout, and employee well-being.?

Embracing rest and recovery is a crucial step on your journey toward creating better boundaries. Part of a healthy stress response is the eventual calming down of our regulatory systems, which allows us to return to homeostasis.?Research definitively shows?that when we rest and engage in recovery activities, we have better well-being, particularly when we have a lot on our plates.?

Here are four ways you can adopt rest and recovery as a way to combat your workaholic tendencies, including concepts from the recovery literature as outlined by?preeminent scholars Sabine Sonnentag and Charlotte Fritz:

Psychological detachment.?

This is a full mental “disconnect” from work, switching off your work-related thoughts when you’re not in the office or don’t need to be working. To facilitate psychological detachment, force yourself to do a nonwork activity that shifts your attention toward something (or someone) else. Think of activities that seem interesting, or people you’ve always wanted to spend more time with. These could include immersing yourself in a good book or TV series, cooking, or catching up with an old friend (but resist the temptation to talk about your job!).?

Physical activity.?

Medical research has shown the positive effects of exercise on our mood and physical health, but it can also help us rest and recover from work, too. Physical activity has been shown to be even more beneficial for workaholics than for the average worker;?one study found?that those higher in workaholic tendencies were happier in the evening and felt more recovered the next morning on days during which they exercised or participated in sports after work.?

Relaxation.??

Meditation or other relaxation exercises such as yoga lower your sympathetic nervous system activation, which brings your heart rate down, helps you breathe more deeply, and relaxes your muscles. It literally takes you out of the fight-or-flight response, reducing stress. Many of the individuals Malissa Clark spoke with from the group Workaholics Anonymous shared how they have found ways to relax. Debra, a licensed clinical counselor, said she takes a few minutes each morning to practice putting golf balls in her living room or listening to jazz music. She and a friend?also committed to taking two quiet pauses every day to take three or four slow, deep breaths.?

Mastery experiences.?

This involves engaging in non-work-related activities that challenge you to learn and grow. Any number of activities can fall into this category. For one of Clark’s graduate students, it’s woodworking. Others may pursue learning a foreign language, perfecting their baking or gardening skills, or taking up a sport. The most important thing is that you decide what activity is the most restorative for you, because having control over what you choose to engage in during your leisure time is?also related to more-positive outcomes.?

In addition to incorporating different types of rest into your off-work hours, consider experimenting with freeing up more time during your typical workday. Research?on exercise during lunch breaks, for example, has shown that people come back after the break with even more vigor to finish out their tasks.??

So, make intentional choices to choose recovery over work. It’s OK to do?something that you find pleasurable for the pure goal of finding joy.??

Thank you for joining us for this series. For more, check out Malissa Clark’s full article on the topic, as well as her book, Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business — and How to Fix It.?

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