Rest is not laziness. It is taking proper care of our health.
Work is important as well, and yet it should not take over our lives. There should be a balance of work and rest.
In today’s culture, it seems that people will praise you for overworking and will look down on you if you take time off. However, rest is essential if we are to do our work properly and if we are to maintain our health.
Here are just nine ways to rest more.
1. Rest more by going to bed earlier.
If you are exhausted, the likelihood of getting more work accomplished by staying up an extra hour (or four) is highly unlikely. Plus, by staying up late, you may need to sleep in the next day to get enough sleep.
Some experts say to go to bed at 9 pm, and you will get better sleep from 9 pm to midnight than you do the rest of the night.
Go here to learn more of the benefits of an early bedtime.
2. Limit trips outside the home.
If you work outside the home, of course you will be making multiple trips a week to work. However, by going straight home most of the days of the week, you will have more time to rest.
Choose a day to do your grocery shopping and maybe another day to do all your errands, and be home the remainder of the evenings.
If grocery shopping seems to take forever–whether you work from home, are a full-time homemaker, or work outside the home–consider using grocery delivery for all or part of your grocery shopping. We use Misfits Market for some of our grocery shopping and you can use my link to save $35 off your first order.
3. Consider about outside the home activities you can do less often.
One thing I want to do is plan for one errand day a month besides my necessary grocery shopping.
If you are currently socializing multiple evenings a week, consider socializing one evening less.
Every time you are leaving your home, you are spending precious time when you could be using that time for something really important such as resting or spending time with family.
4. Plan your work for the day, and do just that.
If you are overly ambitious, you may finish all your tasks for one day and want to begin on the next day’s list. Instead, do something you enjoy such as reading a book, taking a walk, or going to bed early.
Refrain from rewarding your productivity with more work for yourself.
Go here to learn more about having specific tasks for specific days of the week.
5. Consider what unimportant things you are doing, and eliminate those from your schedule.
I used to spend hours and hours scheduling posts on social media because one lady making lots of money said you are a serious business owner, you need to be posting so many times a day. Well, that lady may have had someone posting for her, which is wonderful. In addition, she may have enjoyed social media and made money from it. This is also completely ok. However, it is not how I choose to do my business.
People may think you are odd because you don’t go mini golfing every few weeks or whatever it is, but taking care of your health in the form of proper rest is more important than doing meaningless tasks or worrying about what others may think of you.
Go here to read my blog post “9 Signs You Are Overly Busy.”
6. Cook or at least prep your dinners ahead of time.
When it’s dinner time for me, I have had a full day, and cooking is often not what I want to do. By having food already cooked (from the previous day or earlier that day), I can eat half an hour earlier and get to bed earlier.
Even if you have only the meat cooked, preparing a simple yet healthy meal will not take as much time or effort.
I am not saying that taking time to cook healthy meals is not worth the effort; however, we can rest more by cooking at least the proteins/meats in batches.
7. Have a day of rest each week.
In addition to resting more each day, you need to have a day of rest each week. We are not created to be on the go constantly.
Your day of rest is not for doing extra cooking or cleaning. It is not for outside the home activities (except for church). It is not a day to do grocery shopping.
I used to just go, go, go all the time without taking a day off, and my body started to demanded that rest in the form of illness. Now that I rest more overall and learning that it is not just ok but necessary, I am not ill as often. Plus, it’s less stressful to take a day off than it is to be ill.
8. Limit your media exposure.
News and social media wants us to be anxious constantly by telling us where the latest war is or how many car accidents there were on a holiday weekend, It can also overstimulate our minds with excessive information that has no relevance to us. Social media spends billions of dollars to keep you addicted, and screens are addicting too.
Yes, screens are part of our lives, but we can limit how much we are on them. Put away your screens at least an hour before bedtime so that you can wind down to sleep better.
Go here to learn nine alternatives to screen time.
9. Read more.
Reading good literature in print form can help you relax and also help you think about things other than stressful situations in your life.
Go here to learn more benefits of reading.
If you like to read and want book recommendations, I invite you to join my newsletter. Most weeks I do not send more than one email. I often recommend books I am currently reading or have read in the past!
