Rest is not the reward. It’s the plan.

Dear reader, most of the people I work with treat rest like dessert. They earn it, and then they feel guilty eating it.

Plans that hold have the rest written into them. A week off every seventh week. An evening with nothing on it, said out loud to the people you live with.

Here’s the test I use: if your plan only works when you never get ill, never travel and never have a sad month, it’s a wish with a calendar attached.

This week, put one empty evening in your diary and give it a name. Mine is called “nothing, on purpose”.