GTD 2006.9: No rest will dumb you down

One of the best productivity tips I know is getting enough rest. Rest is not just sleep - although odds are good that its been way to long since you had a full night's sleep. Rest means spending time with friends, going to a ball game, taking a walk by the river: whatever you find relaxing and definitely Non-Work.

The really sneaky side of chronic rest-deprivation is you think you're as wildly productive as you've always been, but you're not. You make more mistakes, miss all the angles, stop thinking things through. You get dumbed down, and that's not smart.

Here's the one-question rest deprivation self-test: do you feel fatigued every day, even the first day of the week? If the answer is yes, it is time to start another productivity project: Getting More Rest.

(Technorati tags: GTD)