Hey Time Dorks!

Connor here with another dispatch.

I know it's been awhile, but I'm excited to be back in your inboxes with something new to share + a few thoughts on the importance of rest.

Something New

I wanted to update you on what we’ve been up to behind-the-scenes.

In April, I put out a call-out in Time Dorks and my personal newsletter One Percent Wisdom to connect with readers for 1:1 conversations to dive deep into their challenges, frustrations, hopes, and dreams.

Thank you SO much for those of you who offered your time. We did over 70 of these conversations, and learned a ton in the process.

We’ve used those insights to shape a brand-new program built specifically for driven professionals in flexible roles who are seeking balance. Folks who feel scattered, stressed, or overwhelmed, and want to become more focused, energized, and fully present.

By the end of the course, you’ll walk away with a set of sustainable routines and personalized practices to help you thrive not just at work, but in your life as a whole.

If any of these sound like you, it might be the right course for you:

• You’re operating at a high level professionally, but underneath the surface you’re feeling stretched thin and out of sync.
• Each day feels like a blur of responsibilities and reactions, leaving you mentally foggy, emotionally depleted, and physically drained.
• You know what might help— focus, exercise, switching off—but those practices keep getting shoved aside.
• You feel the sting of guilt after work, unable to switch off or be fully present with family, kids, partners, friends, or just with yourself, even when you truly want to.
• You carry a quiet frustration that you’re not showing up fully where it matters most. There’s a fear you’ll wake up five years from now exhausted, regretful, and wondering how you missed the moments that mattered most.

The program is kicking off on July 16th and we have a few spots still available.

Curious to learn more? Fill out this form and book a call. I’d love to tell you more about it.

Building Your Rest Ethic

Do you have a strong rest ethic?

I first learned the phrase “rest ethic” from Kevin Kelly, author, photographer, founding editor of Wired magazine, and all-around awesome dude. Having a rest ethic is about being as diligent with rest as we are with work.

Here’s Kevin:

"Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic."

But here's the thing that stops most of us: rest feels selfish. While your teammate is working late, you're...what, taking a bath? Getting a massage? It feels indulgent, even irresponsible.

This is the trap. We've been taught that caring for ourselves is somehow taking away from others. But a depleted version of you serves no one well.

The truth is, we’re conditioned to admire how people work, but not how they rest.

Seeing someone staying late at the office, taking on extra projects, generally going the extra mile, is usually seen as a good thing.

It’s met with a “well done!”. It sets someone up for a promotion, or other conventional measures of success.

If you’re a business-owner like me, then sometimes work can seem endless. There’s always something extra I can do.

I’m not saying a strong work ethic is a bad thing, but what happens when my sleep suffers? Or if work starts to affect my relationships? Or if I work so hard that I get sick of work entirely?

The truth is that your work ethic is only half of the equation. Without a solid rest ethic, the system breaks.

Look, some of us enjoy working hard. But the early signs of burnout are sneaky – decision fatigue, dreading the day ahead, even hyper-productivity in all the wrong things.

If you want to work happily and sustainably, then you can’t let the balance between work and rest get out of whack.

We don’t have emails in our inbox telling us to rest. Nobody’s blocking time in our calendars for us so that we can take a power nap. Rest, in a lot of ways, takes more initiative than work.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to develop a good rest ethic.

To organize my rest schedule, I think of it in terms of daily, weekly, and long-term rest.

1) Daily rest

What small activities help you reset each day?
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I make time for breathwork, a short walk, a nap (yes, sometimes in public!), or reading for pleasure. These daily breaks keep my battery charged so I can be present and focused where it matters.

2) Weekly rest ​
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This involves looking at the week as a whole, setting some boundaries for when I work and don’t work.

For example, I take one laptop-free day every week. The first few times, I felt like I was falling behind. I'd catch myself reaching for my phone to 'quickly check' something. But gradually, I noticed I was making better decisions on Monday because my mind had actually rested. Now I see my modern Sabbath isn’t lazy, it’s making me sharper.

3) Long-term rest

This is about taking a planned break from work after long stretches. Long vacations off-the-grid, sabbaticals, that type of thing.

My wife and I work in 7-week cycles, then take a week off. Sometimes it’s a trip to a nearby town, sometimes just a staycation in our city. This isn't possible for everyone, so if you have a job, consider how to set boundaries around your vacations so you can truly unplug. A week or two fully disconnected can make a world of difference.

It’s so easy to get sucked into the demands of modern life. I wrote this email partially as a note-to-self!

However, I know that a full work schedule is more manageable when you know you’ve planned for rest, too. We all need a reminder to put our oxygen masks on first, so I hope this little message served as that reminder for one of you reading today.

What does your rest ethic look like? I'd love to hear about your daily resets, weekly rhythms, or how you plan those longer breaks.

Until next time,

Connor

P.S. Here are 102 other excellent pieces of life advice from Kevin Kelly.