A break. A breather. A nap. Research recently came out that proved that even after 7 years study participants still scored lower on certain tests that measured the effects of burnout. Seven years. The simple truth is that you might not ever recover from burnout.
So how do you actually take a break?
Well, it has to be measured. For example, this blog post is two days late to the drop box because I rested a little too hard over reading week.
But did I actually rest? Well, I finished sanding, repairing, and painting a dresser I found on the street, I edited my novel, and I worked on planning dungeons & dragons sessions. So how is that resting when I’m working on so much stuff? It’s because it’s stuff that I wanted to work on.
In 2019 Huy was fired from his job because of the pandemic. He came back harder. He worked for two years to launch his new work initiative.
For a lot of, the pandemic was, much as we are loathe to admit it, a break. Some of us began to work from home and felt true despair when we had to waste time going back to the office for a job that could be done entirely from home. I certainly didn’t feel rested during the pandemic.
It keeps coming back to that doesn’t it? How are we rested during actual periods of rest? We have to recharge and come back stronger, otherwise what is it? Or what was the point of it? Can we really say you never work a day in your life if you love your work?
The way I see it, with the research on burnout that has been coming up recently, that rest comes in two forms. The first is bodily rest, the second is mental rest.
Bodily rest is obvious: Eat, sleep, bathe.
Mental rest is where things get more complicated. How do you actually let out stress? There’s tons of research on it and yet no one seems to ever actually be able to do it. I think it’s because this is a muscle.
To mentally rest you need to do three things (matching the three essentials of bodily rest): Do something social, do something creative, and do something exciting.
Let’s go back and look at the things I did over reading week:
Do something social: I played dungeons & dragons! I love that game and playing it with my friends is very often a highlight of the week.
Do something creative: I worked on my novel. Putting thoughts into words, even if it’s just editing syntax, lets us paint the world with our colors.
Do something exciting: Lots and lots of video games. I finally found a torrent of Lies of P, and I can safely say it is the best, and perhaps only, souls-like game not made by Fromsoft that actually understands how to develop a good souls game.
So it turns out I DID actually rest during reading week?
Now let’s compare to the pandemic:
Do something social: Oh god absolutely not, we were all social distancing!
Do something creative: Well I did start the novel during the pandemic so that was clearly me reaching out for that mental rest.
Do something exciting: I’m not sure the dignity of risk feels all that exciting when you’re risking COVID-19.
So I think that’s the big difference here. The pandemic felt like it should have been rest, when in reality it wasn’t because it did not fulfill BOTH body rest and mental rest. That’s also why the 15 minute break at work is never a rest. That’s why the bus ride to and from work is never a rest.
Eat, sleep, bathe. And social, creative, exciting. These are the triangles to actually get some rest in.
Just. Erm… make sure to get back to work when it comes time to do so.