> ![INFO] Book Application > [[My Outputs/My Book Applications/Rest Application]] ## Summary Rest is just as important as work for creativity and productivity. Many successful people balance their work with meaningful rest, which helps them stay energized and inspired. By treating rest as a skill and an opportunity, we can enhance our lives and creative potential. ## Highlights Rest is an essential component of good work. World-class musicians, Olympic athletes, writers, designers, and other accomplished and creative people alternate daily periods of intense work and concentration with long breaks. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4ks6a4dr0rt3rj4m0gxaga)) ^xnmuiy For a surprising number of creative people—including people in professions we usually think of as dominated by nerdy, bookish people who don’t see the sun for weeks—strenuous, physically challenging, even life-threatening exercise is an essential part of their routine. Some walk miles every day or spend weekends working in their gardens. Some are always in training for the next marathon; others rock climb or scale mountains. Their idea of rest is more vigorous than our idea of exercise. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4kveen3x3zeq2f9atg329q)) ^weyusz Many serious thinkers choose activities that reflect childhood interests or cultivate skills they first developed with their parents or older siblings. Such choices are part of a bigger, conscious strategy of building a life in which work, play, labor, and leisure all have their place and are all linked together. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4kw80zmekks19eg7gwzvv7)) ^s1x7u0 ’s breathing is something that virtually everyone doing physically strenuous and mentally challenging work must master. Disciplined breathing is one of the most powerful tools we have to counter stress, fear, and distraction. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4m1n0kjtbgte1qk4hj01bs)) when we rest and let our minds wander, our brains are almost as active as when we’re concentrating hard on a problem. Further, while we’re not conscious of it, the “resting” brain turns out to be consolidating memories, making sense of the past, and searching for solutions to problems that are occupying our waking hours. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4mz7yr1nmx5bfgmqbjwcm2)) ^qectt6 Researchers have also found that a small amount of background noise can boost creativity and that some people perform better on creativity tests when listening to music. This is why some people like working in cafés: the low buzz of conversations and comings and goings provides a useful stimulus, loosening the mind just enough to encourage associative thinking but not so much as to really drive you off task. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4ydzs3z3d1xz8rv5zs973a)) ^wg2spw Whether they know it or not, creative people treat incubation and illumination like skills every day. That’s why they develop and refine daily routines and practices that preserve time for mind-wandering, sharpen their sensitivity to insights, and allow them to capture moments of illumination. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4zcfad7ga5ya1vfj55vdkf)) ^u6fgvd - 💭 this is what I have been deeply neglecting during the past few months due to my lack of obsidian usage and reflecting. Their creativity and productivity, in other words, were not the result of endless hours of toil. Their towering creative achievements result from modest “working” hours. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js4zvp6hbkg7870a51rgdshf)) ^hbmumw “a man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js501vhnx28736da7bbg8k03)) ^15a0v1 - 💭 quote by Charles Darwin's which is interesting because despite him saying this, on the surface it might look like he's not productive or making the most of life since he devotes his life to science but only spends like 4 hours a day on his work. I think this is a good testament as to how much the default mode network and rest can actually supercharge your focus sessions. is this because it gives the task positive network time to rest? or is it because a good amount of work is also done in the default mode network? this could be something interesting to reflect on because then you could find value in just only writing or note making for like an hour a day How do students marked for greatness make the most of limited practice time? The rhythm of their practice follows a distinctive pattern. They put in more hours per week in the practice room or playing field, but they don’t do it by making each practice longer. Instead, they have more frequent, shorter sessions, each lasting about eighty to ninety minutes, with half-hour breaks in between. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js78hqg6r1pfbq362x57j8nn)) ^f6nvp4 The top performers actually slept about an hour a day more than the average performers. They didn’t sleep late. They got more sleep because they napped during the day. Of course there was lots of variability, but the best students generally followed a pattern of practicing hardest and longest in the morning, taking a nap in the afternoon, and then having a second practice in the late afternoon or evening. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js78mkmge51zrfa55dxv9tez)) ^1ypd2u For many, the aim is not to shake off sleep quickly and start work but to ease their way from a state of dreaming to wakefulness. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js9pxpj26pywg1ezhkh1yjd6)) ^10zm2u On the other hand, “insight problem solving was consistently greater at a participants’ non-optimal time of day”: early birds did better on the insight questions in the late afternoon, during their circadian lows, while night owls produced more insights in the morning, when their circadian rhythm was low. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js9q27b2kkj5eb44ntzdnrqt)) ^3z9tuc One potential problem to working outside your circadian peak is that you’re more easily distracted. However, a study by University of Arizona psychologist Cynthia May found that under the right circumstances, this effect can be turned to your advantage. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js9q2zhxyynbtveq6h39yvxw)) ^gvqbnb For them, early mornings and routines set the flywheel of the unconscious spinning. As Stephen King puts it, a routine will “train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction.” Their afternoons may be spent doing more mundane tasks, but they’re able to do more, and do better work, because they use routines, concentrated periods of focused work, and periods of deliberate rest, rather than long hours of labor. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js9qmj6ntev01540vfgpgw2a)) ^hl45ic Once again, the walkers scored higher than the sitters. But what was interesting about these results was that the treadmill walkers scored about the same as the outdoor walkers. The assumption that the gentle, low-level distractions of walking outdoors loosened the mind and allowed people to be more creative didn’t explain why treadmill walkers, facing a blank wall, did as well on the SET—or why treadmill walkers outperformed people pushed outside in a wheelchair. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js9rehewdkt4r06wz2a81f8y)) ^aw9158 Their work shows that you can learn to time your nap to increase the creative boost that it provides, make it more physically restorative, or probe the traffic between the conscious mind and unconscious. Napping, in other words, turns out to be a skill. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js9s194t5ax0pry0fwx8th0x)) - 💭 its interesting to see how ive naturally gravitated towards both walks and naps for my old ideal daily routine. i never realized how common it is, unfortunate that most places don't let you nap due to working conditions. it sounds like people's nap preferences vary - 20 minutes to 2 hours, alarm vs no alarm Regular napping can improve memory. Just as the brain uses a good night’s sleep to fix memories, so too does it use naps to consolidate things you’ve just learned. Neuroscientist Sara Mednick found that napping for an hour or more during the day—a nap long enough to allow one to dream—improves performance on memory and perceptual tasks. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01js9s7nx29dbb1nwh2k32knyw)) ^2mqbf3 About six hours after you wake up, your body’s circadian rhythm starts to dip and you’re likely to feel drowsy, especially if you’ve had a busy morning and lunch. A twenty-minute power nap at this point (say at 1:00 p.m.) is enough to give you a mental recharge without leaving you groggy: if you keep it short, you’ll wake up fairly alert and can quickly get back to work. If you stretch it out to an hour, the balance between your circadian rhythm and sleep pressure will produce a nap that balances REM ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jscb836grfzdw1327j4yj9gg)) ^rmhiby - 💭 1 hour earlier creates more REM sleep, 1 hour after creates more deep sleep Divergence test scores rose not because people’s brains had a chance to recharge but because their minds were able to switch to a different task. The results made the muscle theory look pretty iffy. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jscbsxkn2ybqnn45fambq67r)) ^bfwqwd - 💭 maybe it's not about taking a break but just about having a balance in the mode that your brain is operating in But you don’t do great work by sprinting to the finish; you’re more likely to accomplish great things by stopping at a strategic point and continuing the next day. Learning to stop at the right point in your work encourages a steadier, more sustainable approach to your work, without sacrificing creativity or forcing you to extremes. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jscbykqf5zhqftdxxwmj4vj3)) ^begj6u The idea of using hypnagogic naps as a way of charting one’s own subconscious and retrieving ideas generated in it is tantalizing. For those who want to try it but don’t have an artist’s studio, University of Montreal psychologist Tore Nielsen recommends a variation that can be done at one’s desk. In his Upright Napping Procedure, when you start to feel drowsy, don’t fight it; instead, close your eyes, relax, and let yourself drift toward sleep. With practice, the involuntary movements your body will make as you get drowsy can prevent you from nodding off for too long ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsj3qk0p4qyjytph886awke4)) ^mydxew - 💭 I think this could be helpful for like really creative thinking and thinking of visuals but when it comes to coding solutions or writing a script and not sure if it's the best thing for me Many writers stop at that point so they can stay hot the next day. Roald Dahl was always careful to leave something unfinished so that he would “never come back to a blank page” in the morning, he said. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsj3vh4rqkt73bpsk5g6ttxw)) - 💭 I can try and incorporate this when working on my scripts and videos Visual tasks, emotionally laden experiences, and procedural memories (for example, hard-to-describe skills like riding a bike) tend to be consolidated during REM sleep, while declarative memories (things like lists of words) are consolidated during slow-wave sleep. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsj4mdrzj81pm9f02f1qhwtb)) ^5u2kfe Sonnentag and her colleagues argue that there are four major factors that contribute to recovery: relaxation, control, mastery experiences, and mental detachment from work. Think of them as a bit like vitamins. Breaks that are high in all four are the equivalent of nutritious and nourishing meals; those that don’t are like empty calories. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsj59vjkz3sbep2a21ssm3dm)) ^1mtyf1 - 💭 this is what I've been looking for 😅 Relaxation is the most straightforward of the four to understand: it’s an activity that’s pleasant and undemanding, or, as Sonnentag and her collaborator Charlotte Fritz define it, “a state of low activation and increased positive affect.” By this definition, relaxation doesn’t have to be totally passive: it just shouldn’t feel like work or require conscious effort. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsj5a4cq86ayh2x2yvhax9a7)) ^zakp9l Control means having the power to decide how you spend your time, energy, and attention. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsj5d4s0jf7cy6zxb68knmv1)) ^0yrb4k Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychotherapist and author of the classic *Man’s Search for Meaning*, said, “My hours spent in climbing were the only ones during which I gave no thought to my next lecture or book.” In a life defined by patients, lectures, and books, “when I reached the wall . . . you [would] not find me thinking of anything but the climbing. . . . I was prohibited from thinking about my next book or anything else.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsmvkyc1ptxjds06adph8eee)) ^nwj5sm - 💭 although I do my share of bouldering and other highly competitive activities, I don't think I could say that I have to focus to such a degree because my life is on the line. It's more of a voluntary entrance into flow. I'm just scared of doing something like this because I don't want to have potentially harmful consequences for engaging in something I do routinely For creative and prolific people, seeing outside activities as expressions of the same interests that guide their professional lives builds a bridge between the worlds of work and rest and helps turn these activities into deep play. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jss6qdx1heqc6vbxqjhzcv0j)) ^e4ybbf - 💭 this is my first understanding of bouldering, I saw and to use the same problem solving skills as I would when trying to write some code, but instead of tools available like arrays or variables, I have my physical tools my body