Aside from being obviously healthy, resting can also be a powerful tool for getting more done.

Resting can increase your creativity and your ability to focus, which can positively impact your productivity and results.

Of course, there are times when you can take it too far, but like almost anything in life, you’ve got to find the happy medium. And when you do find the happy medium, you’ll see a ton of benefits.

So, what are the benefits of rest, and how can you get them more often?

Rest Increases Creativity

By now, I’m sure you know that rest is good for your health, so we won’t go into that here. But did you know that rest can actually increase your creativity?

It’s true. Rest can actually increase your creativity.

When you rest, your subconscious basically chews on all the information you gave it throughout the day and then gives you ideas for how to solve it. Also, when you’re resting, you get to step back from the problem and see the bigger pictures. You can see all the interlinking parts and how they work together, and even how you can bring in more parts and make new working connections. Thus, you increase your creativity.

This boost in creativity can lead to some pretty nice benefits in your school work (or regular work). Obviously, if you’re in a situation where you require more creative ideas, then increasing your creativity is an obvious benefit. But even in less obvious areas (perhaps like school?), increased creativity can be helpful.

An increase in creativity can help you to make connections that you previously wouldn’t have made. This can help you to solve problems, come up with a more creative spin on a paper, or just give you a random “Aha!” moment.

Now, obviously, improving your creativity can help improve the quality of your work, but what about the quantity?

Well, those new connections you made can actually lead to quicker solutions. For one, you won’t be sitting there banging your head against the wall of a math problem for as long–you’ll be able to make a connection that will allow you to solve it. Those new connections can also simply bring you new ideas that were faster than previously.

Nerd alert.

When you become more creative, you’ll be able to bring some outside-the-box solutions into your life and work. 

Rather than thinking in terms of a simple A to B linear path, you’ll be able to bend the fabric of space time to bring the B closer to you.

Now, I totally just went full nerd on you. But this simplistic, nerdy example shows you how you can bring point B closer to you with a little outside-the-box thinking.

Take the above example and imagine that the line that the A and B sit on is actually a carpet. In the first example, you walk across the carpet to get to point B. In the second example, you fold the carpet on top of itself and walk a shorter distance to point B.

Why would you do that? I have no idea.

But imagine that same principle applied to something like school work. By thinking more creatively, you can fold up the straight line you have to travel to get to your completed school work and walk a shorter distance. 

Rather than being like everyone else and (*cough* being boring *cough*) walking the straight line, you could be creative and fold it up and walk a shorter distance to your completed school work.

With something as simple and easy as walking across the carpet, it doesn’t make much sense to be creative and fold up the path. But if you put it in the context of a harder problem where it takes much more time to cross the path, being a little creative and folding up the path can save you a lot of time.

So, how can you be more creative and fold up the path between point A (where you are now) and point B (where you want to be) to shorten the distance and travel time?

End nerd alert.

Rest Increases Focus

Proper rest can also increase focus. This one is fairly obvious, but being able to focus properly can lead to some less obvious things.

Obviously, if you rest, then you’ll be able to come back to work and focus fully. Just think of sleep to demonstrate this: If you didn’t sleep, you wouldn’t be able to focus (let’s not forget about the dying part).

But a part that is less known–or thought of–is that when you rest and improve your focus because of the rest, you’ll be able to get into a flow state easier. One of the key factors in getting into a flow state is being able to focus fully on what you’re doing. If you don’t rest enough to be able to focus on your work fully, you won’t be able to slip into a flow state.

If you don’t know what a flow state is; it’s essentially a mental state in which you become fully immersed in the activity, being able to accomplish the activity easily, energetically, and with enjoyment. It’s when you’re “in the zone.”

Rest, therefore, is necessary to get into a flow state. So, if you want to get into a flow state more often, then get some rest.

How to Rest Better

Resting is basically just anything that detaches you from work. Anything where you aren’t focused on your work. Reading, walking, working out, napping, sleeping, playing video games–those all count as rest, so long as you aren’t actively thinking about or doing whatever you’re trying to rest from.

For how long your resting should be, it really depends. Everyone is different. Commonalities have been found–and those have been found to be a 17 minute break for every 52 minutes of focused work.

Personally, I like to try to work for about 3 hours, then take a long-ish break while I eat and recharge. Sometimes that doesn’t always happen, but I find that it’s a lot easier to maintain flow whenever I work continuously rather than interrupting myself with breaks. Although, I am getting a lot better at getting back into flow whenever I do get interrupted/take breaks.

I’ve tried other things like the Pomodoro method (25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of rest, repeat), and while that does work, I just like the 3 hours of continuous flow more.

Really, there’s no wrong time ratio for work to rest. Just experiment until you find what works for you, then stick with it.

Now that we’ve covered how long you should rest for, let’s look at some ways to better utilize that rest and increase your creativity and productivity:

1. Having a Proper Morning Routine: Most people are more creative when they first get up. As such, it’s a good idea to have a morning routine crafted around fostering that creativity. The most important thing you can do is simply get up and get to work.
   
   You can also do a “brain dump” and just write down everything that comes to mind. Then, you’ll have a whole host of ideas, solutions, etc. to come back to and apply.
   
   Getting up and either getting straight to work or getting straight to writing is a routine that can take a little bit to get started. But once you do get the routine in place, you’ll be far more creative and you’ll be able to properly utilize the rest you got from your sleep.
   
2. Stopping at the Proper Time: Stopping at the right time can not only reduce the chances of burnout, but it can also increase your creativity on a project.
   
   There’s this principle in psychology called the Zeigarnik effect, named after Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. It’s basically where you can more easily recall an activity that has been interrupted (or purposely stopped short!). This will actually increase your creativity. On top of that, it’ll actually increase your drive to get back to work: You’ll want to see the finished product.
   
   A way to apply the Zeigarnik effect is to stop what you’re doing before you run out of ideas. When you’re running on fumes, but you still have one or two more ideas to apply to your work, just stop right there and go get some rest. You’ll be able to generate more ideas from resting, then you can come back and get more work done.
   
3. Walking: Walking has also been shown to improve creativity, and so has being outside. Both of them separately increased creativity. What this means for you is that if you want to get some rest and become more creative, go for a walk outside.
   
4. Napping: Napping can increase your alertness and focus, which can increase your creativity in a similar (though lesser) way as full-on sleep and allow you to easily get back into flow.
   
   Of course, if you’re one of those people who can’t nap (like me), then you’ll have to try something else (I suggest walking).

If you keep those 4 things in mind, you’ll be able to become much more creative and productive. Rest is a super powerful tool for increasing your creativity and productivity, so start using it.

While you do that, I’m going to go for a walk.