Rest
Book Choice for July 2021: Rest, by A.S. Pang.
Good Afternoon.
In July, I went on a one-week vacation, and, well, I just had a hard time calming down and enjoying myself. I did catch some Rest in the end, but the staring-out distantly kind, unaware of what you are even processing, and I certainly didn’t “rest productively” as this book tries to show you how to do. In the end, just by being away from the internet and housework mainly, I did rest, but not enough to feel rejuvenated enough to go out and do things, I just lay on the beach. (Which wasn’t bad, I was lucky just to be able to have a holiday!)
However, as I was clearly a bit lost at the time, I did what all over-intellectualizers do in times of (minor) crisis–I ordered a book about the problem. I bought Rest on my kindle app so that I could have it immediately, and then I spent much of the time reading it rather than expressly relaxing, because as I said above, I just could not chill. But it did help me understand how I might (take baby steps to) develop some systems which might help me work more sustainably in future and avoid burnout.
I’m going to go through this book making remarks on each section, in the order each appears in the table of contents; not to give a summary per say, but as usual, only my personal reflections.
I do want to make two things clear first though: One, that this book is, let’s just say, an idealization of what is possible. I don’t even have a job at present, so it is theoretically possible that I could structure my time in any way, but even so I don’t have the time or resources to do all of the activities Rest promotes. I haven’t read “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work” by Mason Currey, but I used to read the blog that book is based on, and I think the suggestions given in Pang’s book might be slightly more achievable than attempting to imitate the lives of artists as described Currey’s book, mainly because most of them worked during times when servants were plentiful and cheap [outrageously exploited]. However, Pang does not mention the concept of “housework” once in his book; not how to integrate it into one’s day or whether it is depleting or gives one time to think.
Not once, as I recall. Hmm, I wonder what the target demographic for this book could be.
Pang does mention childcare once or twice, but dishes, laundry, and the fact that floors don’t sweep themselves doesn’t get a look in.
Oh yeah…and COOKING. (It’s not that important, unless everyone in your household wants to, you know, keep living).
[Insert Rant—I just hate it when the essential tasks involved in keeping a home livable/staying alive are skated over, and I still don’t know how one is supposed to properly recuperate from their work in interesting / exciting / stimulating / creative ways when one’s mind or to-do list are filled with a myriad of domestic tasks].
Secondly, I just want to say that the first time I read this book, I retained very little other than a strong feeling that I really MUST integrate some type of sport into my days. Not just “taking long walks” as 18th and 19th century people did, around their estates, which somehow was enough to keep them fit; but actual heart-pumping, challenging exercise. Rest contains extensive discussion on how regular vigorous exercise improves and protects your brain in one chapter, which may have finally been enough of an inducement for me to prioritize this–although building such a routine is a whole other topic, leading to the necessity of buying another book on kindle (probably).
However, if a book lights even one burner inside you that stays lit, I would say it was worth the money.
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This book opens with discussions of how people want to work, work, work harder, but they ignore taking the rest that will allow them to, basically, work better. Pang’s thesis is that Rest Time is as important as Work Time, which a lot of people will find difficult to take on board, so he goes on to explain what resting properly can do for you.
Part 1: “Stimulating Creativity” discusses how you can structure your days to work better. Simply put, don’t expect more than four good hours of work (with total concentration) to be possible for you (I have been field-testing this for years, and yes, I agree).
Much of Part 1 involves scientific studies, showing the reader the benefits of various practices, particularly taking naps (there was a LOT of brain imaging involved in this section that I don’t particularly want to re-live). There is an interesting discussion in the book of stopping work when you are “going down-hill,” as in, leaving a thought, a sentence or solution unfinished, in order to pick it back up the next time you sit to your work. I was rather gratified that there was a term for this, as I practice it often. I have also found that you don’t really have to think to the end of a problem at your desk. At the end of your workday, admit to yourself that you may not yet know what the answer is, but get up anyway and let your subconscious do the solving.
I have found this to be a fascinating and productive practice as I write my thesis and I wish there was a whole book on it. As I am trying to discover the meaning of ancient symbols, sometimes I spend hours studying the contexts they appear in (because I haven’t got any other clue to their meaning, aside from the fact that that the symbol looks like a sheep, for example), but then I quit for the day, tired but not defeated, and open to suggestions.
It is not uncommon that I will wake up at 3am to get a drink or go to the bathroom, and become consciously aware that my mind was working hard on all the potential meanings of the sheep-symbol, using everything it has ever heard or imagined. Good work, subconscious brain. I went through quite a productive time with my subconscious in August/September, but this particular well seems a bit dry lately, I can’t quite get into the same sort of flow. It probably requires a lot of energy, something that is really lagging now.
This last topic, of using your brain without really noticing that you are, dovetails nicely with Pang’s discussion of what sleep can do for you. It’s always good for me to read things which convince me to sleep more and to try and enjoy it more. Personally I have never got over the adult freedom that lets one choose their own bedtime, so I’m like a kid who never wants to call it a night. I am not sure I’ll ever get over how boring the need for sleep is, so I appreciate the frequent reminders that it is a good thing.
Part II of this book is called “Sustaining Creativity” and discusses the topics of recovery, exercise, deep play and sabbaticals. I could not recall what was in the “recovery” section without reading it for a third time; ah, it is about how to switch off, methods by which you stop thinking about work, such as isolating yourself in a private cottage unknown to your colleagues like Eisenhower did during WWII (soo attainable). But really, this section is about how to take a vacation. How long they should be, and what kind of activities you should spend your time doing.
Pang writes that people like to relax in ways that give them a feeling of mastery, and gave the example of code-breakers in WWII relaxing with games of chess. Whew. I know there was no TV then, and it may just be that I have an irrational, and unwarranted, hatred of chess, but jeez that is not how I would like to relax after a work day, and I basically work on codes myself, so I think the comparison is fair. Earlier this year I did have an idea to repaint old, found ceramic objects in subversive ways, and even bought the paints for it, but that urge has since abated (with one project started). Jigsaw puzzles feel too messy, I’m not a musician, and I’d rather cut my hand off than do sudoku. The search for non-annoying restful activities (that aren’t housework) continues…
And finally, the exercise chapter. (I am skipping the sabbatical chapter as it is not applicable to me presently, although it could be said that my PhD has been a [very challenging] sabbatical from modern life). This chapter is about exercise with a capital E, and for some reason, discusses mostly unrealistic (for the average person) activities, like mountain climbing and sailing. However, there was enough science-y blather about grey matter and white matter in the brain, and staying young forever and sustainable scholarship and suchlike that I have since actually bought (yes every life-change involves purchasing something) myself a stationary bike, against the cold winter evenings coming.
Its actually quite cool, it’s pre-digital, and I believe of DDR manufacture. You crank a knob on the side to go into a harder gear, and it has this cute old-timey speedometer. I like to think that an Communist Olympian of the 1970s trained on it. It was only 25 euros and therefore quite attainable, just take a look on the internet, there will be hundreds of people attempting to sell exercise equipment that they brought home and promptly started hanging towels on. There is a towel hanging to dry on mine right now. However, I use it sometimes and am experimenting. I am practicing getting into a rhythm. No, it’s not surfing or running triathlons or that sport where you ski cross-country while shooting a gun. However, it may actually contribute to regular exercise and living forever.
Clearly, Rest compiles a lot of TIPS. Tips you have seen filtered about on the internet before, but it is well-organized and the scientific discussions, while sometimes a bit boring, do make you feel compelled to do (some) of the practices it suggests. Some, like naps, however, you should probably just discard. Ain’t nobody in the modern West got time for that. Few of us are Winston Churchill. We don’t have private napping bunkers, handy bathing facilities, a valet and a driver. I love the man, but it was a time and place.
The question remains, however: Should all the rest we take ultimately serve to allow us to do more work?
Or should we try to just live, like once or twice a week?
I take issue with the whole premise that we should be doing all these things FOR our work. All of these practices are intended, in the end, to make you more productive. Sleep more productively. Cycle for your grey matter. I get it, but I hate it. Where has daydreaming gone? I spent my formative years daydreaming, and then I spent at least five years, after I had learned about productivity, hating myself for having spent my teens and early twenties in this way. And yet—it was better. No, I never got anything done but damn, I felt the hours in a way that just isn’t possible anymore.
Maybe that feeling is also a product of getting older. I want to produce some (specific) things during my time on earth, but I already know that I don’t want to produce all the things. I already have a list of one project, several articles, certain topics to learn about fully (and a few choice novels to read) that will basically take up the rest of my life.
I wonder whether novelists approach life like they should be writing an infinite number of books? When do they know they are done? When they run out of time?
Anyway, coming back to the point, the intent of Rest is to help you do the work that you want to do. (If you even know what that work is, you are indeed a lucky person already).
What I don’t agree with is that all one’s “play” should support one’s work, or feed into it in some way.
Like, what about reading books for pure enjoyment or entertainment? What about making weird collages from magazines that don’t mean anything? Or that deep trance you can get into while rummaging through old stuff at flea markets?
Sometimes you just waste time.
And that is good.