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Areas › Your body › Rest and pacing
The hours after a proper clocking off feel different from the same hours drifted into, even when nothing else about them changes. It does mean facing what counts as enough for today and what is not going to get done, which is uncomfortable, and that discomfort is most of the point. Put the leftovers on tomorrow's list, out of your head and onto paper, and let them belong to tomorrow.
Recite as much of the Quran as is easy for you (Quran 73:20). The night vigil is scaled down to what a person can actually keep up, and no reproach is attached to the scaling.
المزمل
۞إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَعۡلَمُ أَنَّكَ تَقُومُ أَدۡنَىٰ مِن ثُلُثَيِ ٱلَّيۡلِ وَنِصۡفَهُۥ وَثُلُثَهُۥ وَطَآئِفَةࣱ مِّنَ ٱلَّذِينَ مَعَكَۚ وَٱللَّهُ يُقَدِّرُ ٱلَّيۡلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَۚ عَلِمَ أَن لَّن تُحۡصُوهُ فَتَابَ عَلَيۡكُمۡۖ فَٱقۡرَءُواْ مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنَ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانِۚ عَلِمَ أَن سَيَكُونُ مِنكُم مَّرۡضَىٰ وَءَاخَرُونَ يَضۡرِبُونَ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ يَبۡتَغُونَ مِن فَضۡلِ ٱللَّهِ وَءَاخَرُونَ يُقَٰتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِۖ فَٱقۡرَءُواْ مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنۡهُۚ وَأَقِيمُواْ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتُواْ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَأَقۡرِضُواْ ٱللَّهَ قَرۡضًا حَسَنࣰ اۚ وَمَا تُقَدِّمُواْ لِأَنفُسِكُم مِّنۡ خَيۡرࣲ تَجِدُوهُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ هُوَ خَيۡرࣰ ا وَأَعۡظَمَ أَجۡرࣰ اۚ وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرُواْ ٱللَّهَۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورࣱ رَّحِيمُۢ
[Prophet], your Lord is well aware that you sometimes spend nearly two-thirds of the night at prayer––sometimes half, sometimes a third––as do some of your followers. God determines the division of night and day. He knows that you will not be able to keep a measure of it and He has relented towards all of you, so recite as much of the Quran as is easy for you. He knows that some of you will be sick, some of you travelling through the land seeking God’s bounty, some of you fighting in God’s way: recite as much as is easy for you, keep up the prayer, pay the prescribed alms, and make God a good loan. Whatever good you store up for yourselves will be improved and increased for you. Ask God for His forgiveness, He is most forgiving, most merciful
Qur’an 73:20read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Among intensive care staff, the link between heavy work demands and poor health ran mostly through carrying on thinking about work afterwards rather than through the demands themselves. A separate day by day study found employees detached and relaxed less on the days a supervisor had treated them badly, so how well you can leave work behind is not purely a matter of your own technique. Both are observational, mapping the pattern rather than proving it.
Vandevala T, Pavey L, Chelidoni O, Chang NF, Creagh-Brown B, Cox A. (2017). Psychological rumination and recovery from work in intensive care professionals: associations with stress, burnout, depression and health.. Journal of intensive care doi
Iser-Potempa J, Nesher Shoshan H, Sonnentag S. (2024). Investigating daily abusive supervision as antecedent of subordinates' low psychological detachment and relaxation during nonwork time: A diary study.. Journal of occupational health psychology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Leisure spent feeling guilty restores nothing, and deciding to stop is what turns the same hours into rest.
If stopping is impossible because of how the job is built rather than how you handle it, the answer is not more willpower.
There are two jobs here, not one. Free up the time, and then be able to sit in it without feeling like a fraud.
When you are already behind, rest feels like the one thing you cannot afford. That feeling is usually what keeps you behind.
Half watching a programme while half answering emails is the worst of both. The work takes twice as long and the evening gives you nothing back.