Why Rest Should Be Part of Your Career Plan
I remember a January many years ago. I had a long list. New goals. New plans. New promises to myself. I told myself I would work harder, wake up earlier, prove more. Rest was not on the list. Rest felt like something I could do later, after I deserved it.
By February, I was already tired.
This was not a personal failure. It was a system problem.
Right before the new year, we need to discuss the importance of rest and why it is a necessity, not a luxury. As many women sit down to write their New Year’s resolution lists, rest is usually missing.
It should not be.
Adding rest to your top three priorities can make you more creative, more energetic, and more productive. Rest is not something you do after success. It is what makes success possible.
For many working women, rest is often viewed as a weakness. If you rest, you fall behind. If you slow down, someone else will pass you. If you stop, you might lose everything. So women keep going. They work through lunch. They answer emails late at night. They carry work stress into their homes and family stress back into work. And, rest becomes something we talk about but never truly allow.
Now I believe rest is not a break from ambition.
Rest is part of ambition. And we all need rest!
Imagine this common workday:
Imagine you wake up already tired. You check your phone before getting out of bed. Emails. Messages. News. Your body is awake, but your mind is already running.
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You rush through the morning. You work all day. You solve problems. You manage people. You listen to others. You hold emotions that are not even yours. By evening, your body is exhausted, but your brain refuses to slow down.
You tell yourself this is normal. This is what success looks like.
Research indicates that this is precisely how burnout begins.
What science says about rest and the brain:
Neuroscience reveals that the brain requires rest to function optimally. When you rest, your brain activates the default mode network. This network supports memory, creativity, learning, and meaning-making (Raichle, 2015).
This means rest is not wasted time. It is the time when your brain organizes information and connects ideas.
Studies show that people solve problems better after stepping away from focused work. In one well-known study, participants who took breaks and allowed their minds to wander performed better on creative problem-solving tasks than those who kept working nonstop (Baird et al., 2012).
All of these explain something many women already know from experience. Your best ideas often come when you are walking, showering, or sitting quietly, not when you are pushing harder.
There are moments that many working women recognize.
A woman sits at her desk, staring at the screen. She has been busy all day, yet nothing of significance has moved forward. Emails feel urgent. Tasks pile up. Her body is present, but her mind feels foggy and tired.
From the outside, it appears to be productive. Inside, it feels like being stuck.
In these moments, many women seek greater discipline. They add more structure. They push harder. They tell themselves to focus, to try again, to do better.
But effort is not always the solution.
What is missing is often rest.
When work finally slows, even if only for a short time, thinking begins to shift. The mind becomes clearer. Patterns start to appear. Decisions feel calmer and less reactive.
This clarity does not come from working harder. It comes from allowing the nervous system to pause.
Rest gives the brain space to reset. It shifts the body out of constant urgency and back into balance. From that place, focus returns and progress becomes possible again.
Burnout is not about weakness!
Burnout occurs when stress persists without adequate recovery. The World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been effectively managed (World Health Organization, 2019).
This is important. Burnout is not about being too sensitive. It is about systems that demand constant output without space to recover.
Research by Maslach and Leiter shows that burnout reduces motivation, emotional connection to work, and performance over time (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). In other words, burnout gradually erodes the very qualities that make women excel in their jobs.
Short breaks actually work. Why?
You do not need a long vacation to feel better. Research indicates that taking short breaks during the workday can reduce fatigue and enhance focus and mood (Kim et al., 2017).
Imagine stepping away for ten minutes. No emails. No scrolling. Just breathing, walking, or sitting quietly. That small pause tells your nervous system that you are safe. It helps your body shift out of stress mode.
When the nervous system calms down, thinking improves. Decisions become clearer. Reactions soften.
This is not self-help talk. This is how the body works.
Rest and Leadership
Think about the leaders you trust most. They are usually calm. They listen. They respond instead of react.
Leadership research shows that managing energy is just as important as managing time. When leaders protect their energy, they make better decisions and support others more effectively (Hobfoll, 2011).
Rest is not only personal care. It is a professional responsibility.
When women in leadership roles take time to rest, they model healthier work cultures. They show that success does not require self-destruction.
Mothers & Caregivers
For mothers, rest often feels impossible. There is always someone who needs something. Many women rest only after everyone else is taken care of.
Research on caregiver stress shows that ongoing exhaustion increases the risk of depression, anxiety, and physical illness (Vitaliano et al., 2003). Caring for others without caring for yourself is not sustainable.
A career plan that ignores rest ignores reality.
Making rest part of your career plan is a necessity.
Rest does not mean quitting your job or losing ambition. It means planning recovery the same way you plan work.
Schedule rest like a meeting.
Protect it without guilt.
Notice signs like brain fog, irritation, and constant tiredness.
Redefine productivity as steady, sustainable progress.such as brain fog, irritation, and constant fatigue
Imagine building a career that still exists in ten or twenty years. That career needs rest to survive.
Success is not how much you can endure. It is how well you can think, lead, create, and live while you grow.
Again:
Rest is not laziness.
Rest is a strategy.
Rest is how strong women last.
References
Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W. Y., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1117–1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612446024
Hobfoll, S. E. (2011). Conservation of resources theory: Its implication for stress, health, and resilience. Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health, and Coping.
Kim, S., Park, Y., & Niu, Q. (2017). Micro break activities at work to recover from daily work demands. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(1), 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2109
Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311
Raichle, M. E. (2015). The brain’s default mode network. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 38, 433–447. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-071013-014030
Vitaliano, P. P., Zhang, J., & Scanlan, J. M. (2003). Is caregiving hazardous to one’s physical health? Psychological Bulletin, 129(6), 946–972.
World Health Organization. (2019). Burn out an occupational phenomenon.
