As we step deeper into the future of work, one with lots of knowledge-working, sitting in front of a computer, with a pandemic out there and remote work, there’s going to be less boundaries between work and other segments of life. The ‘always on’ mode will be tightening around us and eventually suffocating us.
The ability to truly disconnect and disengage from work is so important that our bodies would otherwise rebel by shutting us down, both physically and mentally. And that’s why we not only need to think about the amount of time we need to finish a piece of work, but also the amount of rest we will need in-between the work, and after that.
We should be scheduling the rest into our calendars, and that should not be something negotiable. Even if we think it is. Our culture still needs quite a bit of work to get there.