When you hear the word ‘rest’, what do you think of? Sleep? A break from work? Maybe the phrase ‘rest and relaxation’? All of these connotations are important to the renewal of the four dimensions that author Stephen Covey talks about in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Let’s look a little closer at how we can use rest for renewal.

Physical

The relationship of rest to the physical dimension is probably the easiest to understand (but not always the easiest to achieve).

“If you think you can get by on 4-6 hours of sleep, know this: 50 years of sleep science has proven that lack of 7-8 hours of sleep is one of the worst things you can do for your mood, health, brain, and relationships.”

Brendon Burchard “How to get more sleep”

Just like any habit, if we want to get more sleep we need to start out by being intentional. Perhaps you can pick a time in the evening where you will start a wind down routine. Almost everything I’ve read indicates to fall asleep well we should stop looking at screens (TV, phone, tablet, etc.) 60-90 minutes before we want to fall asleep. Everyone’s wind down routine will be different. You might be able to read, or prepare for the next day. I like to lay out what I’m wearing for the next day, to reduce the stress of trying to figure that out in the morning when time is short. Whatever you do, if you start intentionally and build onto your wind down routine, it can easily become a habit that you hardly have to think about. And hopefully better sleep will result.

Social/Emotional

The phrase “rest and relaxation” speaks to the renewal of the social/emotional dimension.

“We need time off, rest, time with family, leisure, play and exercise. We need big chunks of time when we aren’t thinking about work at all, when it’s not even on our radar.”

Michael Hyatt, Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less

This type of rest may not include physical rest, but the kind of rest that just feels good because you are doing things you like to do with people you like to do them with. Resting in this way leads to renewal of the social/emotional dimension.

Spiritual

“Pursuing the vague notion of success in and of itself can lead us into trouble. The problem is, most of us have never stopped to define what success means.”

Michael Hyatt Free to Focus

“Just like healthy eating and exercise are the surest – and least used – methods for losing weight, setting aside time to think and actually thinking are the best way to combat overwhelm.

John Maxwell, “Think Like a Leader”

“The idea is that when we take time to draw on the leadership center of our lives, what life is ultimately all about, it spreads like an umbrella over everything else. It renews us, it refreshes us, particularly if we recommit to it.”

Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

We need to take a rest from everything so that we can make time for thinking. If you did the funeral exercise in Habit 2, you know the importance of setting aside a few minutes to think. In this exercise, we get clear on what we value, and on our desired character.

Thinking can also involve reflecting on the events of the day and how we felt about them. Which were energizing and which were draining? What were we grateful for? Knowing this information can guide us to work and activities where we add the most value and that we find the most satisfying.

When we take time to think we may also find that some idea, concept, or future adjacent skill is drawing our attention at the periphery of our perception. If we are so busy that we can’t pay attention to thoughts like these, we may end up missing out on something that will help us in the future.

Getting clear on your values, reflecting on the day to understand what resonates with you and what you’re talented at, and what lessons we’ve learned that can be applied in the future is crucial to renewing the spiritual dimension of our lives.

Mental

Physical rest, rest and relaxation, and taking a rest from everything to think helps us to renew our mental dimension, which involves creativity, envisioning the future, and planning. Mental renewal lives in Quadrant II.

From Brendon Burchard’s post on “How to Get More Sleep,” we learn physical rest in the form of sleep improves our cognitive abilities, boosts creativity, reduces stress, and helps us make better decisions.

Being in a different environment with friends and family, not thinking about work can actually help us be more creative.

“Creativity depends on times of disengagement, which means doing nothing from time to time is a competitive advantage.”

Michael Hyatt, Free to Focus

And, taking time to think and reflect will guide our mental renewal by helping us focus on what to read, what to write, and what to pursue. Rest in the other three dimensions indirectly helps us renew in the mental dimension.

tl;dr

Getting enough sleep, resting and relaxing doing things you enjoy with people you enjoy being with, and setting aside time to think are restful ways to renew our physical, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions. By resting in these ways we indirectly renew our mental dimension by boosting creativity, reducing stress, and increasing our cognitive abilities.

engineer your life

  • Take a moment to reflect and determine if you’re getting enough sleep, rest & relaxation, and time for thinking.
  • Carve out a little more time for some aspect of rest you might not be getting enough of.