Guy Winch

I'm going to plop down here on the couch and spend the next several hours binging screens or doom scrolling, badging out.

And what happens is that when we do that, we are likely to wake up feeling tired the next morning, even if we relaxed for several hours that night.

Because recovering what the research tells us and what common sense will tell you is that to recover from the workday, resting and relaxing is only half the equation.

that will not recharge your batteries.

It won't deplete them, but it won't recharge them.

To recharge your batteries, to feel revitalized, you actually have to do something that makes you feel that way.

If you're athletic, you have to work out.

If you're an extrovert, you have to socialize.

If you're creative, you have to go and work on a project.

If you're a maker, you have to create stuff.

If you're an organizer, you have to organize.

Those are the things that

feel like an investment of energy, but when we do them, we come back with a second wind.

We actually come back feeling more energetic than before we left.

The problem is we don't distinguish well between physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion.

So we believe we're physically tired, even though we sat all day.

We're not physically tired.

We're mentally drained.

We're mentally, quote unquote, wiped out.

And if we listen to that and indulge the urge to just veg, then we will keep, you know, just sitting down and we will keep being tired because we're not actually giving oxygen to these vital aspects of our lives, our identities, our personalities, the things that nourish us.