Your Best Investment? Infinite Return on Rest

Hey there -

A couple of weeks ago, I told you I was resting. Vertigo took me out at the knees. Literally. 

Well, I’m back with more on the importance of rest. Consider this: according to FlexJobs' 2025 Work & PTO Pressure Report, 23% of workers didn't take a single vacation day last year. 

That’s an insane number! Especially considering most of them had paid time off coming to them.

The top reasons people gave for not taking time included too much work to do, the fear of falling behind, and good old-fashioned guilt about stepping away. 

I read that and winced. I had years in a job where I couldn’t take the time I wanted or needed due to a measly two-week vacation policy. What I would have done for time to take off! 

But even when I took time off, it took years of training myself to actually be off. (They are not the same.) I would check my email periodically, and my out-of-office message said, “If you need to reach me, here’s my cell…” 

I thought I was helping myself. I really did. My inbox would be more manageable when I got back, and the people who needed me wouldn’t be lining up outside my office at 8:30am on the Monday I returned. 

The math doesn't add up though. Because I was never really “off” I’d go back to the office exhausted, resentful, with a fuzzy brain. When you never step away, you're not protecting your output… you’re just reducing it.  

So let's reframe rest as what it really is: an investment. In you. 

A former finance guy I know gave a familiar acronym a makeover. In finance, IRR stands for Internal Rate of Return, which is a measure of how profitable an investment is. In its reimagined state, IRR stands for the Infinite Return on Rest. 

You're the one who can set your rate of return, and rest is one of the few investments that keeps compounding the more you commit to it.

I understand the hesitation. Stepping away usually means coming back to a wall of email, voicemail, and Slack pings. Cutting out early on a Friday can leave you feeling more buried come Monday than if you'd just stayed put. Call it compounding interest on stress (since we're already speaking finance).

And yet, rest isn't optional. Whether it's real sleep or a few minutes away from your desk, rest is how our brains and bodies repair and reset. It's what lets us come back sharper, with a fresh perspective.

So then, how is not resting costing us? Because grinding it out backfires eventually.

Picture yourself at the gym doing bicep curls. At some point, your muscles simply give out because they can't lift the weight anymore. Would you keep trying to do bicep curls? 

Your brain works the same way. I think of it as cognitive congestion: eventually, the system overloads and can no longer process what's coming in. 

Ready to take time off yet? Or even a 10-minute walk away from your desk? Here's what you get in return:

1. You activate your Default Mode Network (DMN). This is your brain's behind-the-scenes organizer. It kicks in when your mind wanders and you're not locked onto a task. (And no - scrolling social media doesn't count. That keeps your brain task-focused.) The DMN is how we restock motivation and attention, spark creativity, and make meaning out of our experiences. Your brain keeps working on problems in the background, which is exactly why the big idea so often arrives in the shower.
   

2. You get more sleep. While you sleep, your brain clears out toxins, locks in learning, and cements memories. Sleep scientist Matt Walker has helped popularize this. And if you just need the Sparknotes, here you go.
   

3. You shift your nervous system into a better gear. If you've been stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, rest is your invitation into “rest-and-digest” - the physiological opposite of stress mode. When work is one of your biggest stressors, stepping away gives your body a chance to recalibrate.

You've heard me say this before, and it's worth repeating: one size does not fit all. 

You're the only person who can decide what kind of rest will restore you. If you need a starting point, there's no shortage of ideas out there (here can give you a place to start), but the real answer comes from you.

There's a reason Wellbeing is one of the dimensions in the Leadership Fluency™ Framework. Caring for yourself mentally, physically, spiritually, financially, and emotionally builds the personal infrastructure that everything else - work and life - gets to stand on. 

The payoff from giving yourself a real break is hard to overstate. My hope for you is simple: figure out what rest looks like for you, actually do it, and set your own rate of return.

Go rest. I hope it's infinite.

S

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