If an NBA basketball player refused to sit even just one minute of a 48-minute game (2% of regulation time), you would call them crazy. A full-speed NBA game is too strenuous not to rest periodically. Even the stars who spend the most time on the court usually sit for more than 25% of the game.
Why, then, do you refuse to take a week off? Why do you let a sick week or an unmotivated season derail your whole month?
One week is less than 2% of a calendar year. It does not matter. If a basketball team lost because their star player sat for 60 seconds, that’s not a healthy team. In fact, a player who refuses to take any minutes off would be doing their team a disservice. There are others with fresh legs. Young talent deserve their shot too.
This isn’t a perfect analogy. Your business probably won’t let you take 25% of the year off. That’s understandable. But too often, productivity-focused people like us won’t even take a week off. We don’t even sit for one minute of the game.
If you feel like your business would fail if you took a week off, I want to challenge that notion. Either you’re right, and your business will fail (in which case, you should know where your liabilities truly are). Or more likely, you’re wrong, and your teammates and clients can survive just fine without you.
I’m sure they’ll all be happy to work with a refreshed version of you. Take a week off.
