Learn From My Mistakes: Rest Is Part of the Work

This is a short one. A simple message for the holiday season.

Whether you’re still at a school or you’ve left and you’re building something on your own, I want to tell you something I wish someone had told me years ago: please take time off.

I’ll be honest about how I used to approach breaks. I viewed them strategically. The holidays meant fewer emails, fewer requests, fewer people needing something from me. The external noise quieted down, and I would use that silence to catch up, to get ahead, to clear the decks for January.

I’m not saying that’s a terrible approach. There’s logic to it.

But here’s what I’ve learned, and I’m learning it later than I should have: nothing good comes from pushing yourself into the ground.

So this is my ask. Take a few days off this week. Or if you can’t manage that, take one solid day. One day where you don’t do any work. Put the screens away. Really unplug.

I can’t overstate how healthy this is. Physically, your body needs the rest. Mentally, your brain needs the space. I spent too many years treating rest as something I would earn later, something that would come after the next project, the next deadline, the next crisis. That thinking was wrong.

Learn from my mistakes on this one.

Have a wonderful holiday season with your family.