When did you last review your Personal Rest Plan? Do you have one? 

Most professionals have a plan for their ‘development’, often called a Personal Development Plan. We might not always deliver on its promises, but most employers recognise the importance of having one, and so we’re encouraged or forced to review it periodically and try to take it seriously. Many of us will also have a personal savings plan or a retirement plan of sorts.

Why do you have your plans? Aside from whether you’re required to have one by others, most people recognise that without a plan for something, we can fall into only being reactive about it instead of proactive. We’re at risk of not making consistent progress on achieving something that’s important. Or even of forgetting about it altogether in the busyness and clamour of competing priorities.

So how about your rest? I’m guessing we’d all agree that some kind of rest is important. Do we plan for it, though? Have you considered how much rest we want to get, when and how? Do you have a Personal Rest Plan that helps to guide your week and year, ensuring that rest doesn’t get crowded out of your life?

I’ve been involved in research into occupational stress and burnout, and been responsible for investing public money in supportive coaching for doctors nearing the end of themselves. The research into burnout and recovery shows that, for way too many of us, the need to plan our rest doesn’t even occur to us until it’s almost too late. 

I confess that I’m a latecomer to the party on this one. Anyone who’s worked with me will know that I have long had an unhealthy tendency towards overwork and underrest. At the start of this year, I was forced to recognise that it was making me ill, and blocking my recovery from Long COVID. So finally, at the age of 50, I’ve had to learn some hard truths, including the fact that even I need to rest.  And that, if I’m serious about that, I need to plan my rest. Better late than never, eh? 

I’ve recently been challenged by Saundra Dalton-Smith‘s work on the place of rest in our busy lives. In particular, she outlines 7 types of rest, each with different types of benefit for us. I’m off now to review my Personal Rest Plan to ensure I’m getting enough of all 7 types. How about you?