Something to readWorkload & wellbeing
Rest
A book about why you get more done when you work less, and how deliberate rest feeds your best work
Why it’s worth your time
Rest isn't the reward for finishing the work; done well, it's part of how good work gets done. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a historian of science and Silicon Valley consultant, looks at the daily routines of prolific scientists and writers and finds that many did their hardest thinking in about four hours a day, then walked, napped and played. It gives anyone stuck in long hours both evidence and permission to work differently.
How to rest so you get more done
The book · About 7 hours of reading · Buy or borrow
How to get it
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- Start with the chapter called Four Hours.
In her review for The Englewood Review of Books, Emma Sleeth Davis marks it as the point where the book's practical core begins, with Pang's case that a day holds only about four hours of deep, demanding work. The chapters that follow, on mornings, walks and naps, are where the ideas turn into a routine.
- Protect one focused block, then rest on purpose.
Pick one morning this week. Put your hardest piece of work in the first two hours, notifications off, and when the block ends take a real break: a walk without your phone works well. Notice what got done and how the afternoon felt.
Good moments for this: when long hours stop paying offbefore a busy seasonafter a crunch
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Pang's examples are mostly people with a lot of say over their days. If your calendar belongs to other people, start smaller: one protected block a week, agreed with your manager, is often easier to get than a new schedule.
What might make this harder
Make your output easy to see instead. A short note on what moved this week tends to say more than a late timestamp, and if late hours really are the measure, that's worth knowing about the job.
Questions people ask
What is Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang about?
The idea that work and rest are partners rather than opposites. Pang draws on research and on the routines of scientists, writers and artists to argue that deliberate rest, such as walks, naps, sleep, exercise, hobbies and sabbaticals, makes focused work better.
Can people only do four hours of focused work a day?
It's a pattern Pang finds in the routines of many prolific people and in a well-known study of violin students, whose hardest practice tended to add up to about four hours a day.
What is deliberate rest?
Pang's term for rest you take seriously and plan for: restorative activity that lets your mind keep working in the background, rather than collapsing at the end of the day.
Is Rest worth reading?
One reviewer, Emma Sleeth Davis, found it engaging and well researched, writing in The Englewood Review of Books. If the idea is new to you it's a persuasive read; if you've read a lot about overwork, the free excerpt may be enough.
What it says, and how it holds up
The book grew out of a sabbatical Pang took with his wife. A historian of science by training who has consulted in Silicon Valley, he looked closely at the daily lives of people like Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and the mathematician Henri Poincaré and found the same surprise again and again. Their work came first in their lives, yet it filled only a few hours of each day. Those hours were concentrated and often early, and the rest went to walking, napping, talking or playing.
From there the book builds a practice. One stretch covers the shape of a day: a few focused hours, a morning routine, walks, naps, knowing when to stop, and sleep. Another covers the longer rhythms that keep people going for years, including exercise, the absorbing hobbies he calls deep play, and sabbaticals. One study he draws on is the Berlin research on violin students behind the famous practice findings, in which the best students also slept more and took their downtime seriously. Nautilus published a free excerpt, Darwin Was a Slacker and You Should Be Too, that carries the core argument.
Emma Sleeth Davis, reviewing it for The Englewood Review of Books, found it engaging and well researched but noted that most of Pang's models control their own schedules, and that some chapters, like the one linking success to serious exercise, show correlation more than cause. Publishers Weekly reviewed it too. The famous routines are worth borrowing from, with no promise that the same hours will suit your job.
If the trouble isn't how you rest but how much you're carrying, a better break routine won't fix it. If the load itself is too big, scope is the thing to raise with your manager. And if exhaustion persists through rest, sleep and time off, it's worth talking to a doctor.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.