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Recovery Time: How Work Is Just Like Your Workouts
You need to recuperate after the gym and the workday.
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When you go for a run or have a heavy lifting session, your heart rate, breathing, and muscles require some recovery time. The same is true in the context of work, where you expend not only physical but also cognitive and emotional energy. Your body and your brain need to recover!
Beyond Midday Napping
People who engage in recovery activities feel better at the end of the day and the next morning, research shows. This can be as simple as taking a nap, although most offices don’t offer nap pods like Google does.
It’s also possible to recover in a variety of ways, including activities both at work and away from work, such as going for a walk, connecting with an old friend, or trying out a new creative hobby. People who spend less time on these kinds of activities report worse moods, sleep, and even job performance.
What’s the Best Way to Recover?
The best kinds of breaks — the ones that seem to be the most restorative — involve:
- Consciously not working. This means fully disengaging from work-related activities (e.g., email, texts), ranging from micro-breaks to long-term sabbaticals.
- Connecting with others or nature in a meaningful way. Our electronics tend to dominate how we spend our leisure time, but doomscrolling on social media is definitely not as restorative as going for a hike with your significant other!
Whether you adopt a “work hard, play hard” mentality or simply build light relaxation into your daily schedule, taking a break can improve your overall well-being and your productivity.