Rest Is Part of the Work

"I realized I was a workaholic. People try and use that term in a positive sense but when you have it, it is no joke."
(from my tweets, 2015)

Most of my tweets from those years celebrated hard work. I compared my hours to my competitors'. I said relaxing and having a good time "is not going to cut it." So this tweet was an admission. Somewhere along the way, I had noticed that the thing I was proud of had a cost.

But I also tweeted things that pointed in a healthier direction: "Whenever you accomplish something, you have to rest a little. If it is something big, you have to rest a lot." And: "I don't work hard/play hard. You'll wear yourself out. I work hard, simple rest with tranquility."

Those two sides of me were having an argument. Research has a lot to say about who was right.

Hard work is not the same as workaholism

Psychologists draw a clear line between work engagement, being energized and absorbed by your work, and workaholism, a compulsion to work that's hard to switch off, even when you want to.

A 2016 meta-analysis by Malissa Clark and colleagues pooled dozens of studies on workaholism. It was linked to more burnout, more stress, more work-life conflict and lower life satisfaction. And it wasn't clearly linked to better job performance. The people who couldn't stop working weren't reliably doing better work. They were just paying a higher price for it.

That matches my old tweet. Workaholism sounds like a compliment. When you have it, it is no joke.

The point where more hours stop helping

Economist John Pencavel studied detailed records from British munitions factories during World War I, when workers' hours were long and output was carefully measured. He found that output rose with hours up to a point, but past roughly 50 hours a week, each extra hour produced less and less. Beyond about 55 hours, the additional output was so small it barely mattered.

The health costs are more serious. A 2021 study by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimated that working 55 or more hours a week was linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths a year from stroke and heart disease worldwide.

Long hours sometimes feel heroic. Past a certain point, they mostly cost us.

What good rest actually looks like

If rest matters, what kind? Psychologists Sabine Sonnentag and Charlotte Fritz identified four "recovery experiences" that help people bounce back from work:

1. Psychological detachment: actually switching off from work mentally, not just physically leaving the office.
2. Relaxation: low-effort, calming activities like a walk, music or a bath.
3. Mastery: learning or doing something challenging that has nothing to do with work, like a hobby, a sport or an instrument.
4. Control: having a say in how you spend your free time.

People who get more of these experiences tend to report less exhaustion and better well-being. The first one, detachment, is often the hardest for ambitious people. You can be on a beach and still be at work in your head.

What the philosophers said

Aristotle saw leisure not as the opposite of a good life but as its goal. In the Nicomachean Ethics, he wrote: "We are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace" (Book X). For him, work was the means. Time to think, learn and enjoy life was the end.

The philosopher Bertrand Russell made a provocative version of the same argument in his 1932 essay "In Praise of Idleness." He wrote that "the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organised diminution of work," and argued that modern people had come to treat work as a virtue in itself rather than a way to live well.

Neither of them was arguing for laziness. They were arguing that rest is where much of life's meaning happens.

How to rest well

• Set a stopping time. Decide when your workday ends and protect it like an appointment.
• Create a shutdown ritual. Write tomorrow's top three tasks before you stop. It helps your mind let go of today.
• Rest after big efforts. Follow my old advice: after a big push, rest a lot, not just a little.
• Pick up a non-work challenge. A hobby that absorbs you gives you mastery without the pressure of your job.
• Guard your sleep. I tweeted back then that my energy came from going to bed early. Sleep is the most basic form of recovery there is.

Today's reflection

I don't regret working hard. Many of the good things in my life came from it. But I've come to believe that rest isn't the opposite of the work. It's part of it.

So today, give yourself permission to stop at a reasonable hour. Do something that has nothing to do with your goals. You're not falling behind. You're making sure you can keep going.

Sources

• Clark, M. A., Michel, J. S., Zhdanova, L., Pui, S. Y., & Baltes, B. B. (2016). All work and no play? A meta-analytic examination of the correlates and outcomes of workaholism. Journal of Management, 42(7), 1836–1873.
• Pencavel, J. (2015). The productivity of working hours. The Economic Journal, 125(589), 2052–2076.
• Pega, F., Náfrádi, B., Momen, N. C., et al. (2021). Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016. Environment International, 154, 106595.
• Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2007). The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: Development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(3), 204–221.
• Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, Book X.
• Russell, B. (1932). In praise of idleness. Harper's Magazine.