Deep Rest over Endless Scrolling
Hey Neurons,
There is currently a heatwave in London, which means that temperatures inside and outside the house are reaching over 35 degrees. Although, compared to other countries, this might not seem that hot, our houses are not built for these temperatures, which means that inside the house it might be even hotter than outside. One of the things that is noticeable with these extreme temperatures is that they force us to slow down. We cannot work, exercise, or play at the same rate as we used to. There comes a forced pause to our work and to the speed at which we like to operate.
I think, in the current day and age, this forced slowing down is hard to navigate. We are used to wanting to learn more, go faster, and optimize our lives to do so. There is little time for rest and reflection in our days. However, what I found during my time as a PhD student, and now as a postdoc, is that our productivity and output are like the weather. There are seasons when we have a lot of energy, we produce a lot, and creativity seems to be at its peak. Then there are seasons when everything slows down, certain projects seem not to work, and frustration builds. To be an academic means that we can weather both of these seasons. If we stop when the rain falls, we can never see the sunshine of a new discovery.
1. Deep Rest as the Foundation for Meaningful Work
One of the facets that I believe helps us weather the more difficult times in science is a solid foundation for deep rest. This is the sister of deep work, or distraction-free concentration, coined primarily by Cal Newport in his book Deep Work. The idea behind deep rest is to treat rest in our lives with the same reverence as work. Thus, rather than optimizing our day and living only in the pursuit of working more, we should, in tandem, create clear moments for rest and reflection.
What rest looks like differs from person to person. Some might prefer to spend time with friends, others might enjoy playing a sport they love, or staying at home and watching a good movie. However, one key aspect that is needed is the allowance to switch off without guilt. To allow for full absorption in the task at hand and experience the feeling of flow during restful periods as well.
I personally believe that removing guilt is the hardest part, as often, when I am resting, I am thinking about all the other things I could be doing with the time. Even when resting, I often find myself asking: Is this rest productive? In other words, does it serve to make me a better scientist? The problem with this mode of thinking is that, in order to do good work, we need consistently good rest, and good rest, in essence, is not “productive” in the classical sense.
When I look online at different professors and fellow scientists, I find that we often look at their productive periods as a source of inspiration; how, when, and where they did their most productive work. However, alongside these prolific periods of work, there were usually periods of deep rest. For example, some of the greatest philosophers and scientists were known to take long walks in the countryside. During these periods, they might have reflected on the problems they were facing, but it also allowed them to take a distance from the daily grind of work.
2. Building Rituals for Rest
The act of resting does not come naturally to everyone, and as such, it is good to build in anchor moments where we force ourselves to slow down. Historically, these moments were often holidays, religious events, and Sundays. However, with the introduction of flexible working and the internet, we can now work at any time of the day. This provides some freedom, but also removes the activity of shared rest, where a large group of people take the same period of time to slow down. Following this, I believe structural periods of rest have three facets that make them easier to maintain: a social anchor, a time anchor, and a place anchor.
The social anchor is having shared activities with friends, family, and colleagues that force us to take a break and slow down. For example, at around 12:00, I always share lunch with my colleagues at the university, and although I often think it would be more beneficial for my work to keep going, when I skip this hour of rest and force myself to work, I crash later in the day. Another social anchor might be dinner time with your family or a sports activity that you always do with your roommates. The benefit of a social anchor is that there is a level of peer pressure to slow down. Your community wants you to join them and rest together.
The time anchor is more straightforward: it is a time of day that you reserve solely for rest. This activity can be anything that your mind comes up with and does not have to lead to some type of production. For me, I seldom work in the evenings. This is for two reasons. I often find that when I work in the evenings, my work is sloppy and I have to redo it the next morning. Secondly, when I decide to work in the evenings, I find it much harder to start early the following morning. So, already as a student, I decided that if I have really tight deadlines, I would rather wake up an hour or two earlier, but always protect my evenings for rest. The time of day or week that you choose to rest might be different, but it is good to protect this time as much as you protect your time for work.
The place anchor is a place in or around your primary residence that you dedicate solely to rest. For some of us, this might be our bedroom; leaving our phones, laptops, and other work-related materials outside is key here. However, if your home life is quite demanding (for example, because of a parental role), it might be warranted to seek this place of rest outside the home. A third place, outside of work and home, is then needed. This can, for example, be a local coffee shop, where you do not work but only read or journal, or perhaps your local yoga studio. Even a nice green area in your neighbourhood can serve the same purpose. The only rule you want to enforce in this place is that it does not get "tainted" by work. Thus, when you enter this place, you try to leave all thoughts of work behind and fully focus on what you are doing there and then.
3. Creating Instead of Consuming
Creating over consuming is a point I keep returning to, but I do find it fundamental to deep rest. It is the dichotomy between creating something while at rest versus consuming something while at rest. On the one hand, when one is really tired, it is, of course, fine to spend time consuming some form of media or entertainment. However, I think that when this is the primary pattern in your week, spending all your time working and then crashing afterwards, it is a sign that something is out of balance. It means that you spend so much energy (be it mental or physical) during work that there is nothing left at the end of the day to spend on yourself.
At the end of my PhD, I found that this became my pattern, as I had to focus on finishing the final writing and also had to be very "strict" with myself about deadlines. This meant that, at the end of the day, I was so drained that any type of creative spark was gone. Although during the week I often find myself wanting to just read a book or watch a series, on the weekends, when I am more balanced, I love creating and exploring new things. During such weekends, I started this newsletter, the YouTube channel, began writing a silly novel, and got into meditation. However, when I am overwhelmed with work, all of this falls by the wayside.
This is why I would encourage you to reflect on rest: how you rest, why you rest, and what type of rest is actually most creative and delightful for you. Sometimes the rest we take is not really the rest we need.
“Self-indulgent? If anything, it’s constantly berating yourself that’s the self-indulgent path, reflecting the inner taskmaster’s hubristic belief that he or she could bully you into doing anything, merely by shouting enough. Facing up to reality – as finite humans must – means facing up to the reality of your moods, desires, and interests, too. This is why it takes courage to ask yourself the question that I suspect all those gurus promoting the ‘warrior mindset’ and ‘mental toughness’ are too frightened to ask themselves: How would you like to spend your time today?” Excerpt From Meditations for Mortals Oliver Burkeman
🧠 PS: I am considering working more closely with a small number of PhD students, with the goal of accelerating your progress towards completing your degree, publishing one or two high-impact papers, and making the research journey as smooth as possible. If this sounds interesting to you, feel free to book a call:
