Learning to take time out- the smartest lifehack of all

Take a break and read Rest- you’ll make smarter decisions, have better relationships, and be happier and more creative James Wallman, author of Stuffocation

Do you regularly find yourself too tired after a long day at your desk to do anything other than binge TV, or scroll mindlessly through social media? Do you go on holiday and still compulsively check your email? Do you work through your lunch-break, often not even leaving your desk to get some fresh air?

For most of us, overwork is the new norm, and we never truly take the time to rest and recharge. But as Silicon Valley consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang explains in this groundbreaking book, rest needs to be taken seriously and to be done properly, because when you rest better you work better.

Drawing on emerging neuroscience, Rest is packed with easy practical tips for incorporating rest into our everyday-

• Go for a long walk to stimulate and sustain creativity

• Schedule deliberate active rest periods into your diary to try out new activities like painting or learning a language

• Stop working on a task when you know what the next step will be, this will make it easier to get started the next day

• Take a nap during the day to increase alertness, boost your concentration and decrease fatigue

• Get good quality sleep at night to stay healthy, solidify memories and generate new ideas

When you rest better you’ll find that it won’t just be your work which improves - you’ll have more time for hobbies, stronger relationships and you’ll sleep better, too.

An incredibly timely read for my own increasingly rest-starved life. This might be the book to finally persuade us that downtime isn’t in conflict with good work; rather, it’s an essential ingredient of it Oliver Burkeman, Guardian