by Deanna Parkton
When was the last time you felt genuinely rested? Not necessarily “I got eight hours of sleep” rested, but cognitively restored and energized? If you’re drawing a blank, you’re in good company. If you feel like your days have been filled with more work and extra hustle, it might be time to reconsider how you integrate rest into your workdays.
Many of us think of rest as a reward – a reward that may continuously get pushed off in lieu of another task. But rest shouldn’t be something that you earn after productivity. Rest is actually what makes productivity possible in the first place. It’s a necessity.
Your brain isn’t built to be “always on”
Neuroscientists have known for decades that the brain operates in rhythmic cycles of focus and recovery. This is what researchers call ultradian rhythms. Roughly every 90 minutes of sustained cognitive effort, your brain shifts into a lower-alertness phase to recharge. Most of us override that signal with caffeine, urgency or sheer willpower. We push through and our work and mental health suffer for it.
Think about the last time you stared at a document for an hour, rereading the same paragraph, producing nothing of value. That wasn’t a motivation problem. That was a recovery deficit. It was your brain asking for a break.
The ability to perform at your best depends entirely on how well you recover.
23% drop in creative thinking after just one week of poor sleep
6× more likely to make critical errors when cognitively depleted
90 minutes: the natural performance cycle your brain operates in
What actually happens when you rest
During downtime (real downtime, not scrolling your phone!), your brain activates its default mode network (DMN). This network is responsible for creative insight, problem-solving and connecting ideas. It’s where your best thinking often happens (when you’re not trying to think!). The “shower epiphany” is a DMN phenomenon; the lightbulb moment comes when you’re not looking for it (similar to waking up with the answer to a problem you couldn’t crack the night before).
Sleep and rest are when the brain does the filing. Skip recovery, and you’re essentially putting data into a system that never saves.
The high cost of overwork
Career ambition is a wonderful thing. But ambition that ignores recovery doesn’t build careers, it can harm them. Research from the World Health Organization links long working hours to significantly elevated risk of burnout, cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. More relevant to your day-to-day: chronic overwork hurts the very qualities that drive career advancement (strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, innovative problem-solving).
Make it practical
- Take a real (screenless) break every 90 minutes. This could be a short walk or a few minutes outside.
- Protect at least one full day per week with zero work communications
- Use your vacation time (all of it, without guilt)
- Build a wind-down routine that signals to your brain the workday has ended
- Notice your peak cognitive hours and protect them for deep work, not meetings
Rest as a discipline
Top performers increasingly structure their schedules around recovery (not despite their ambitions, but because of them). They treat rest the same way they treat strategy sessions: as non-negotiable, planned and purposeful.
Start small. Look at your current week. Where are you grinding past exhaustion? Where could a 20-minute break actually return an hour of quality work? Build recovery into your schedule the same way you schedule meetings. Because in terms of career impact, it’s every bit as important.
The most sustainable career is the one that knows when to recharge.
For more ideas on how you can strategize your work, consider working with a career coach. A coach can help you identify strategies to face challenges head on. Check out our executive coaching services and sign up for a free consultation here.
Deanna Parkton is a writer, career coach and educator with a passion for professional development and work wellness and happiness. With a focus on self-reflection, she works with individuals in their quest to reach their career goals as well as satisfaction in work-life balance. You can find more of her writing at workinglivingwell.com and she can be reached at workinglivingwell@gmail.com.