Befriend Your Work, Have Some Fun, And Rest.

Work shouldn’t be a burden for us. If it is for you, you’ll have a hard time getting fulfillment in life because there will never be a time when you won’t need to work. Not because there’s always scarcity of resources but because we need to work as much as we need food and oxygen. If you don’t work, you’ll get sick. It may either be depression or other physical illnesses due to lack of exercise. These are my tips for a better work-life balance.

Author: Utuje Bénie

While many people disregard the importance of rest in today’s world of bustle, with a common excuse that they have much to do, I’m writing this to show that it is in fact one of the most needed things for people to succeed.

Guilt of rest and fun.

"And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested" Genesis 2:2

There is this unspoken rule that one must ultimately avoid spending time on anything unrelated to their goals (or distractions depending on how you see things) in order to achieve them.

Since this is impossible –at least in my experience- people obviously do some unrelated stuff but make sure to avoid anything that would entertain them so that they don’t feel guilty of relaxing while they have much to do.

Making the word “fun” disappear without a trace from their dictionary is their number one priority. Consequently, they become less productive and unhealthy.

I hate to break this to you, but trying to put your undivided attention to your work by cutting ties with friends and family and waving goodbye to all kinds of relaxation like sleep and parties won’t ensure your success.

In fact, it will give you chronic fatigue at best and stroke at worst. It’s like putting too much burden on yourself and then collapsing under the weight.

The intentions are good but the approach is poor. You can’t tell me that you’ll be able to stick to your resolutions if all they do is make your life miserable. Time to refresh is needed for the mind to be creative and the body to be healthy.

I don’t think I need to tell you that sleeping is important because if you can read, you’ve already figured it out. But for some twisted reason, it’s one of the first things we replace when we don’t have enough time to do everything.

It’s easy to overlook the consequences of not getting enough sleep when the deadline is nearing or when you desperately want to accomplish a task. Sleep deprivation doesn't come immediately but will eventually catch you off guard.

I bet that once you start dosing during the day you will resolve to start sleeping on time. Unfortunately, it is easily said than done.

Here is a technique that will help you. Before you reduce your sufficient hours of sleep to do something else, always ask yourself this question: Am I cool with sacrificing my health for this particular activity to get done? I assure you that you’ll realize most of the things aren’t worth it.

Make sure that you have fixed hours to sleep and wake up and strictly obey them. Do not just sleep when you are no longer able to keep your eyes open or wake up when you randomly hear a noise.

It is necessary to have patience when we’re working on our dreams. Things that will last usually take time. Instead of robing ourselves hours of rest, we should carefully make our timetable in a safe way.

Make no mistake, you shouldn’t quit or rest as soon as you feel a bit under the weather; pushing oneself and tolerating discomfort in general is essential to accomplishing goals.

My point is that you should deliberately schedule time to rest and do things you enjoy just for the fun of it.

Work shouldn’t be a burden for us. If it is for you, you’ll have a hard time getting fulfillment in life because there will never be a time when you won’t need to work. Not because there’s always scarcity of resources but because we need to work as much as we need food and oxygen.

If you don’t work, you’ll get sick. It may either be depression or other physical illnesses due to lack of exercise. So what’s the point of putting all your efforts in building a life that you won’t enjoy anyway?

Granted, most of the time we need to do things we don’t like and work hard when the last thing we want to do is work. However, we can always figure out something to make the work less unpleasant.

For example if you have a hobby –say reading -and you run a business that keeps you too busy, you could decide that every after 2 hours you are going to take a 15-minute break and read a few chapters in a book of your own choice.

That way there will be something to look forward to; hence, you’ll work more quickly. In addition to that, it will help you work more efficiently instead of spending many hours trying to concentrate because the brain is exhausted.

For this to work, you should establish boundaries and respect them. Otherwise, if you keep breaking your own rules, like playing video games for 30 minutes while you had planned 10, you will be even less productive. I think this helps also with developing self-control.

If you are a student, the next time you want to cram a definition try to compose a song out of that definition. If you are a teacher, you could find the best pictures to illustrate what you want to teach, take pictures with the students after an interesting lecture, or prepare a small reward for the best student. Just do whatever thing that makes what you do enjoyable.

It is also necessary to take a few days off in order to rekindle your passion and regain your courage. You can go somewhere else, change your environment and refresh your senses.

When you feel stuck, it may be because you’ve been doing the same things and you no longer think straight and a vacation is exactly what you need.

Having said all this, I want to clarify that not everyone has an issue with resting. There are some who take it easy more than needed and rest while they should be working.

For example, I like reading so much that it almost became an addiction. Reading in itself wasn’t bad. The problem I had was that I lied to myself that since reading is advantageous, it was okay to do it anytime.

On numerous occasions, I used it as a distraction from doing my other duties, while I could have done it in my free time only. This too is self-sabotaging. This is precisely why you need to be vigilant about two things.

Do not confuse resting with laziness.

Your need for rest shouldn’t be used as an excuse to ditch your responsibilities. You should make sure that time to rest is a reward you give yourself for having worked as necessary. Convince your mind that everything has it’s own time.

• If you can never choose the stairs over the elevator,

• You sleep more than needed,

• You can’t concentrate at least for an hour on a certain task and always choose what’s easy over what’s right; You are probably being lazy.

It may be caused by lack of self-discipline or lack of self-confidence. So carefully think of the cause and then work on it. Making what you do enjoyable is not the same as only doing what you enjoy.

Beware of what you do in your fun time.

Just because you’ve got time to enjoy yourself doesn’t mean that you should do anything you want carelessly. One thing that would help you is to do enjoyable things that are also profitable and harmless.

To give you an example, I wanted to stop reading because it was taking too much of my time. But I couldn’t find it in me to abandon my beloved novels. So, I resolved to replace all the fiction novels I read with inspiring books.

First, it saved me from reading a book just to finish it and take another one; I now learn from them. Secondly, I can’t be addicted to inspiring books as I was with fiction novels; after all it’s not a story I desperately need to know how it ends.

This can be helpful to anything else too. If you have a good appetite and you choose to eat as a way of relaxation, why don’t you eat vegetables and fruits that are actually good for your body instead of intoxicating yourself with unhealthy food?

Instead of sitting in front of your television watching a swimming competition, you could go in a swimming pool and swim. It would be a fun physical exercise.

In short, befriend your work by finding something fun about it and giving yourself enough time to rest; and also, never forget to make your fun time beneficial.