Professionals take breaks

Helping Friendly Newsletter, 04.02.21

I’m going on vacation next week, so it seems like a good time to tackle energy and rest. Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s email:

1. Professionals take breaks

2. Rest as resistance

3. Your energy patterns

4. How to take a break (haiku)

Photo by Ali Abdul Rahman.

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1. Professionals take breaks

Writer Daniel Pink asserts, “Professionals take breaks. Amateurs don’t.” Breaks are necessary because energy ebbs and flows. Pros grasp how those patterns impact their work. Read more here.

According to Daniel Pink, Peak>Trough>Recovery is a typical pattern. (Reverse it for night owls.)

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2. Rest as resistance

Tricia Hersey advocates a social justice framework for rest as resistance in her Nap Ministry, which draws from Womanism, Black Liberation Theology, and Reparations Theory (among others; see link for a full list). Her work is significantly more ambitious than the usual productivity narratives, and she brings an important critical lens to this widespread challenge. I recommend following her.

The Nap Ministry @TheNapMinistry

We must see rest as a foundation for our freedom and liberation and not something that is frivolous and wasting our time. We must deeply get this. Feel this.

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3. Your energy patterns

Your challenge, if you want it, is to track your energy/rest and look for patterns. Though we can’t always control which work we do when, understanding how your energy flows and how you like to rest is good for both project planning and values alignment. Here is a worksheet to support you:

Get the 8.5” x 11” version here.

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4. How to take a break

Sit down, warrior,
and rest easy in knowing
you will rise again.

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Thank you for reading

This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 If you would like to show your support, you can invite someone to check it out, order from my storefront on Bookshop¹, venmo me a coffee, or engage my services. If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can access the archive or subscribe here.

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Treasure chest

I bet you find a gem ➔ please speak out for accountability in the Derek Chauvin trial | chess strategies can address uncertainty | the hard science of reincarnation? | RIP Beverly Cleary (your books made me love reading 🙏🏼) | new additions to the National Recording Registry | good news for deadheads | motel for sale in beautiful Schitt’s Creek | octopus dreams and bonobo kindness | the grandeur of the galaxy

Happy Easter to my Christian peeps, and, to my Jewish friends, chag Pesach sameach! Have a great weekend. I’ll see you again soon.

Jenny

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