Make time to recharge

Rest and recovery is required.

Everyone needs time to recharge, whether you are physically training or not. We all have responsibilities and obligations — stressors — in our lives. Recovery in sports training is important for progress and injury prevention. Downtime from every day life is for burnout prevention.

Just like any training plan should have rest days set aside, you need to schedule time for rest and recovery.

But how to schedule these? When? What do you do? Luckily there is a simple framework to give you a guide.

3M Burnout Prevention Framework.

The idea is simple. There are three different breaks, all of them starting with M. Micro Breaks, taken daily. Meso Breaks, taken weekly. Macro Breaks are taken monthly.

Micro Breaks should be little snack sized breaks that allow you to disconnect from work and other obligations. Ideally something that energizes you. It’s recommended to make these something small you can do throughout the day: a short walk, coffee break, a time of prayer or reflection. I prefer to take a longer break in the middle of the day. Go for a run, workout or just go for a walk outside. The point is to find something you can do to get peace everyday.

Meso Breaks are longer weekly breaks. Most advice is to make this a 1-2 hour to detach from work and other responsibilities. Personally I think of this as the practice of Sabbath. This is a day to go to church, spend with family, be in nature, pursue creativity. Whatever it is that gives your soul rest that week, make room for it.

Macro Breaks are the real magic to this framework. Pick a day off every month. Take that day to do something fun or to put some work into making your daily life easier. This is a perfect day to plan a microadventure or to finally declutter and organize your kitchen. If you’re going to choose the latter, however, I would suggest making sure that weekend is particularly refreshing.

The nice thing about Macro Breaks is that you’ve planned them out in advance. They are something to look forward to. They feel like you’re selfishly skiving off work for the day but in reality you’re doing it responsibly

It’s a long weekend in the US. A perfect time for many of us to think about how to get more time to recharge throughout our lives. So, schedule those monthly days off and build routines of rejuvenation in your weeks and days.