How Can Knowledge Workers Rest Effectively?

Why Rest?

• Growth = Stress + Rest. Too much stress and too little rest can overwhelm a person; too little stress and too much rest can lead to complacency and stagnation. Experts allocate stress and rest wisely to grow efficiently and sustainably.
• Engage in targeted, high-intensity training, then rest and recover. Repeat this process while slightly increasing intensity to effectively enhance physical capabilities.

What Can Rest Restore?

• The two resources that knowledge workers expend the most and need to recover from rest are willpower and attention, so:
  1. To rest, first disconnect from the internet.
  2. Short and frequent breaks are better than long periods of work followed by long breaks.
  3. It’s best to leave the office during breaks.

What Is Rest and What Is Not?

• Useful rest: Relaxation, socializing (casual chatting, WeChat).
• Useless rest: Eating, cognitive activities (reading news, checking emails).

How to Rest?

• Short-term

  1. Take timely outdoor walks. Moving your body increases blood flow to the brain and provides a pleasant “distraction.” Even standing up and walking a few steps every hour is a good rest.
  2. Return to nature; being surrounded by flowers, trees, mountains, and rivers can be restful. Even looking at pictures of nature can have a noticeable effect on the brain. Changing your computer desktop to a natural landscape can also help.
  3. Gather with friends, chat, and have a drink. It must be friends for the sake of friendship, not for networking.
  4. Start with a cup of coffee containing about 200 milligrams of caffeine; set your phone timer for 25 minutes; begin to rest; get up immediately when the 25 minutes are up.

• Medium-term 5. A good vacation is like recharging; it can provide abundant energy for a long time afterward. During vacations, completely detach from work. Besides walking, returning to nature, and gathering with friends, you can listen to music or take a bath, but activities that consume attention, like gaming or scrolling through your phone at night, are not allowed.

• Long-term 6. Learn to meditate. Find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed; sit comfortably; take deep breaths and feel your belly rise and fall with each breath. Focus on your breathing, but don’t deliberately avoid thoughts that come to mind; acknowledge them and then let them go. Start with one minute each day and gradually increase the time. 7. Sleep is crucial; its role is not just to eliminate fatigue but also to allow the body and brain to “grow.” Sleep should be regular, ideally 7-9 hours each night, with the specific duration varying by person, aiming to wake up naturally without an alarm.

How to Not Concentrate?

Attention is a limited resource. When you focus your attention, you are consuming the brain circuits related to attention. But how do you rest your mind? We are constantly thinking, and it’s hard to stop; so what does “not concentrating” mean? This introduces an important concept called the “Default Mode Network.”

1. “Positive Constructive Daydreaming (PCD).”
2. Take a short nap.
3. Pretend to be someone else, viewing stress as a challenge rather than a threat, and encourage yourself.