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Leap Year Lesson #40: You Need a Day of Rest

I believe in working hard. Sometimes I go a little harder for more days in a row than I should. But one thing is currently a given in my schedule, and that is the need to sleep in on Saturday mornings to give my body time to catch up on needed rest. My work schedule for now has me putting in a lot of hours through Friday. Sundays tend to be anything but a day of rest, so that leaves Saturday for me.

It’s amazing what you can push yourself to do as long as you know there is an end in sight. What is exhausting and unsustainable is when you feel like you have no option but to push harder than the body or mind can endure when there is no end in sight.

I appreciate my manager’s recent offer of letting me pick a day of the week that I’d like to work from home and to plan on doing so weekly. I won’t work any less on those days. In fact, I’ll still put in about 10-12 very productive hours without the hassle of commuting and the distractions of the office. I’ll get more done. It won’t be a day of rest from work, but it will still be a day of emotional rest because of the chance to hang out in my man cave with my dog (shown resting in the picture above), wearing comfy clothes instead of a tie while I work.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that everyone should only work five days a week and then do what they want the other two days, although I’m not suggesting there is anything wrong with that. There is something to be said for working and producing six days and then resting. We will accomplish more in the long run doing that.

It doesn’t matter which of the seven days of the week you pick to rest. Just pick one and stay with it. Don’t let others fill it up with more things to do and places to go. Give the body, mind and spirit the rest it needs by observing lesson learned #40 – You need a day of rest.