Why Rest Is the One Thing You Shouldn't Put Off

There are a few things in life that shouldn't be up for negotiation. Rest is mine. The advice we all grew up on — don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today — works just as well in reverse. Almost nobody uses it that way.

I'm in the last year of my early twenties, right before the middle ones start. I've spent most of that time in a competition nobody entered me into. Be better. Keep moving. Don't stop. That phrase was the whole operating system.

Turn the phrase around and it still holds. Don't put off the rest you could have today. The trip you keep not planning. The visit you've been meaning to make. The night out with friends that keeps sliding to next month.

We move through the day like everything is urgent. Almost none of it is.

Plenty of it is negotiable, actually. Work can wait a few hours. The dishes can be split with whoever you live with. Half of tomorrow's list can stay on tomorrow's list.

What shouldn't be up for constant negotiation is your peace. The quiet hours. The people you love. Being happy while it's happening.

Work will always find you another task. Time has the bad habit of not coming back.

Maybe growing up is just understanding that resting isn't losing the day. It's taking care of the person who has to do everything else tomorrow.