A 21st-century contradiction sits at the heart of this book: Overworking yourself or your employees is the wrong way to reach your goals. “Productivity books offer life hacks, advice about how to get more done, or stories about what CEOs or famous writers do,” Alex Soojung-Kim Pang writes. “But they say almost nothing about the role of rest in the lives or careers of creative and productive people.”
Related: Why Working More Is Making You Less Productive
Rest is an equal partner to work, argues Pang, visiting scholar at Stanford University and senior consultant at a Silicon Valley think tank. The most creative people of history—from Charles Darwin to Stephen King—knew how to do it. They harness daydreaming to free the unconscious mind to find new ideas. They plan rest into every day. They know that the right kind of rest prolongs creative life. This is a book of deep wisdom and human insight.
Rest
By Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
December; Basic Books; $28
This article originally appeared in the December 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine.