November 6, 2024
When others around you can't or won't take recovery time, it becomes especially difficult to prioritise it yourself. Here's why it's still worth doing, and how to make it easier.
Bucking the anti-rest trend can improve balance for everyone
Many of us have someone in our lives, at work or at home, who can't seem to switch off. This constant activity might come with a deep distrust of rest, or in fact any activity that isn't obviously, immediately productive. They might express that distrust explicitly, for example by referring to recovery time as "being lazy", or implicitly, for example by focusing exclusively on output, progress or competitive versions of success in conversation.
This behaviour, especially if it's from a person with some power, or from a group of people you spend a lot of time with, can easily create the temptation to minimise or skip the recovery time you know you need. If you can resist that temptation, you're not only taking better care of your own health, you're also setting up a social influence in the opposite direction. You're demonstrating that prioritising the right kind of recovery time is healthy, and over the long run will improve productivity, too.
How to protect recovery time when it feels like it's under attack
The best way to protect recovery time depends on how directly it's under attack. It may simply be a case of noticing the behaviour and consciously deciding not to be influenced by it. There's a good chance your always-on colleague or family member doesn't realise the effect their behaviour is having, so ignoring it may be your best option.
However, if people you work or live with are ignoring boundaries you've put in place to protect recovery time, or directly questioning your need for recovery time, you may need to deal with the issue more directly. Having an open conversation about what you need to stay healthy, recognising that it's ok for your needs to be different from theirs, is the best place to start. You may find this raises underlying issues, including concerns around fair distribution of work. Addressing these concerns clears a big barrier to protecting your own recovery time; it may even prompt your always-on friend to re-think their own.
