In this first part of the series, Master Your Mind, we are going to talk about rest. This is as important as your work, but most people overlook it. "Rest? But, man, I wanna grind 16 hours a day!"

Firstly, I may be a woman (I almost believed myself on this), and secondly, that is possible with mindless tasks, ones that don't require much focus or willpower. However, if you are reading this article, most likely, your primary work/business requires some hard focus, the kind that you need to pull from the back of your dead soul.

For this to happen easily and at will, you will need some good rest. I am not saying you can't work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. I am saying that you don't have the balls to do it. If you want to consistently put in 12-hour workdays, 6 days a week (maybe 7 if you are a maniac), you will need some good rest.

Now, I am going to shut up with my rant and just tell you what's the best rest and why.

What?

Boredom. It's that simple. You can either:

1. Meditate.

2. Stare at the wall/ceiling.

Here, the important part is to stare at something bland that is not moving and not changing (like a wall...). I prefer to lay on my bed (I set up an alarm if I fall asleep) and watch the ceiling. Meditation also works, but if you are like me, it will need some effort and willpower to meditate, and that is not what we want. We want full rest mode.

I've been doing this for a few months, and I can say that it is by far the best rest thing you can do. Depending on your work, you can stay focused for an hour and a half, maybe 2 hours (maybe 3 if it's really pleasing), and afterwards you can take a 10-15 min break, just lying on your bed letting your mind think (or try to fall asleep and take a 10 min nap).

To this, I can also add my Sunday "break." It is simply the above but exaggerated. Where you can lay on your bed and stare at the ceiling for 2 hours (maybe 3 if you want to have a bigger effect). It is really important not to fall asleep, that's why you need set up an alarm every 20-30 min. Here we want to make your brain think of all the things it wants to think about. Just let yourself think (you have the time, wink). This exercise is extremely boring, as after about thirty minutes to an hour, it will hit you. You won't want to lay there doing nothing and will want to go do some productive things, but bear with me, last the 2 hours. This will have a profound effect on your mind.

Now when you have finished this, you can feel 2 things. Either that you are sleepy or energized. If energized, just go do your work. However, if you are sleepy, we need to start moving your body, do any task that you have planned for the day, or take a short walk (15-20 min) without listening to music.

Why?

Now it's the interesting part. Work is the same thing as exercise, however, its effects are larger on the brain than the body (yes, you can feel sore after some mental work). And just like when exercising, you pause between sets, here, we will also need that "pause".

However, we need to make the rest relaxing rather than stimulating. This is the most important part, as some things that people consider "rest" are not actually rest (like TV, video games, checking Twitter, or Instagram). Stimulation on rest time is like bench pressing on your 3m squad rest break. You think it won't affect you because these are 2 different things. However, if your brain can think, you should have been driving a Lambo by now, instead of reading this article.

This is the magical part here, as the brain likes to stimulate itself, and like the 30-year-old single women, the bigger the better. If we make your "rest" more stimulating than your work, your brain will choose... well, to "rest." That is why we make it so boring that your brain is thrilled to work again.

The extra bonus part is that you don't have infinite thoughts. You think you do because your brain is always full of them. However, that's because you have no waking moment when you and your brain are together. Every waking second you spend either consuming content or multitasking, like watching a YouTube video while preparing dinner, listening to music while walking the dog, and so on.

However, if you are left with enough time with your brain, you will just run out of things to think about. All the cringe childhood memories, the awkward moment when you tried to flirt with a girl in the gym, all of that, gone. And what happens afterward, you may ask. Well, here is a 3-minute video about the subject link (it's like your brain overdosed on brake cleaners).

Sweat out the stress?

Rest and boredom are good, but you will also need an active way of removing stress from your body. This can be going to the gym, running, some fighting sport, or anything that will get you focused and make you sweat.

These are needed because with time, you can build up frustration and anger. The rests above will do nothing about these emotions, and if you let them build up with time, they can be the main source of your burnouts. And what better way to remove anger than hitting 100kg on the bench (the weight of 885 cheeseburgers, for all my American readers).

What I've learned from successful people is to space your work between these active stress removers. Simply, wake up -> work -> gym -> work. This will help with the workload, as if your work is more dense and requires large quantities of focus, splitting it into 2 will give you two 4-5 hour work sessions with about 2 hours of "rest" in between.

That's all for today. Also, if you enjoyed it, feel free to share it on Twitter and tag me at 0x3b.