How Taking Breaks Can Improve Productivity: Rest is Resistance book review

 I want to be in bed at nine o'clock.

I want to be rested.

I want to spend time in my room.

I want to go to sleep. Okay.

Give me all the stuff that was punishments when you were a kid, right?

Hey, I'm Kyla Denanyoh, and this blog is about the book Rest is Resistance. Now, it's called a manifesto, and that's for real because this is an evidence-based book. You hear me?

It's full of all kinds of facts and quotations and all the good stuff. But this book is written by Tricia Hersey. The genre of the book is nonfiction. The theme of the book is growth and self-improvement.

So, I know you're busy. I know you're busy. Let's get straight into the most important examples of rest that I could find. One example is an extra-long shower or sipping warm tea before you go to bed. Another is a 20-minute nap, so literally rest, meditating, resting your eyes, strolling through the park, praying, or deep listening to a full album, not just music playing in the background but like “Beyonce; what are you saying in Renaissance?”

Rest is all of these things.

The entire point of the book is that we have to take care of ourselves. We will not be here to fight the fight, to do the work, to be entrepreneurs, or to record the videos if we don't rest.

So, let's get into the first way that I am resting. I am not wearing my Apple watch. Nope. Y'all, I've been trying to stop wearing my digital watch for months. Okay, I have a ton of analog watches. I read physical books. I'm an analog kind of girl, but oh, I like to get these little alerts and notifications when I'm doing stuff.

“Ma'am, if you run a flight of stairs, it's good for your heart, not your watch.”

“If you jump rope, it's good for your heart, not your watch.”

The first way to get rest is for me to cut the electronic cord: no more digital watches.

So, did you know that rest is not a reward for you working hard? To me, when I'm working, whether it's editing or writing or it's reading, whether it's typing or whatever it is, let's take a five-minute break to reward being productive. I never called it a reward, but it was a reward because I'm a big fan of the Pomodoro method, which is to work for 25 minutes and take a five-minute break, or in my case, I work for 65 minutes and take a 10-minute break because 25 minutes is too short.

Note: The Pomodoro method involves working or studying for a specified amount of time and then taking a break. I prefer to work for 35 minutes, take a 3-minute break to get a glass of water, and then work for another 35 minutes.

So for me, this book told me that I had to reorder things. It had to say, I am taking 10 minutes to myself because I'm taking 10 minutes to myself. But that also means if there's a day that I just am not feeling the work, I can also take that day off. Or I can decide one day not to do the Pomodoro, right?

Like I tend to commit and dive in. So now I'm like, if it's not Pomodoro, it's not working. "Kyla, you can also go to work and take a break if necessary." Now, if you're not good with taking breaks, which I'm not, that's why the Pomodoro method works for you. So that leads right into the next point, which is rest is intuitive. 

I struggle with this one. Okay, Tricia was getting me together.

And I don't know if it's the lawyer background. I don't know if it's the entrepreneurial hustle. But I needed some net ministry, and Tricia got me together. Okay, and intuitive rest means you need to listen to your body, and you are allowed to rest. Okay, and we're not talking about you becoming a slacker. It doesn't have to be that extreme. Okay, if your body is telling you you have been burning the candle at both ends, and it is time for a break, you can take a break. I've been waking up at five in the morning to get work done.

Now, my daughter wakes up at 7:30 in the morning, packing lunch, having breakfast with the husband and the kid, talking, all of this stuff, right? I know the time is beneficial, but I can't get up. So you know what that means? I started going to bed at 9:45. OK, so our lives are busy—busy being professional troublemakers, running businesses, and all the things.

So go on and check out this video here. It's all about how to be a professional troublemaker. All right, so I'll see you in the next blog.

Thanks for reading with me!

Kyla