by Erich Sachs

For years I resisted having a day of rest each week; an entire day where I was expected to do as little as possible. I’ve always been busy, moving, doing. So to have an entire day blocked out to do nothing but rest, felt like a constraint on my productivity.

Kim wanted a Sabbath day and, because of her Catholic upbringing, felt that Sunday should be our day of rest. A day with no computers, minimal phone and TV, when we try to stay at home and hang out as a family. I don’t do any major projects or run power tools on these days.

It’s taken us years to craft a day that meets both of our needs–she wants to relax together and I want to feel productive–but I think we’ve started to get the hang of it.

The first step for me was to accept that rest is important and that it can take many forms. It can be whatever I need it to be.

So our days off look kind of like this:

We sleep in as long as possible. (I love to sleep, so it was easy for me to get behind this part of the plan.) This doesn’t always work out, because the dogs want to get up, or we have to get up for something or other, but I was pretty excited the other day when I slept in until 11:30 a.m. That was a good way to start to the day.

As often as we can we spend Sundays at home. We use the day to do our batch cooking and  get our food ready for the week, and we clean and tidy the house. It’s a long day, and we’re on our feet quite a bit, but we end the day feeling good about the time together and the work we’ve gotten done. I know these don’t necessarily sound like rest day activities, but there are no requirements. If we don’t finish, that’s okay. If we’re tired and need to nap, that’s okay. If we decide to go out, that’s okay too.

Generally, we’re always moving, but it’s in a relaxed state. It’s never forced or strenuous. If we need to stop and break, we do. But usually the pace is casual enough that we accomplish quite a bit in the day.

While we are getting all of our work done, we are talking and goofing around most of the time too. It’s a deliberate opportunity to be together in the bubble of our family, which brings us both a lot of joy.

Your day of rest can look any way and it can be any day. Sunday is a natural fit for us, but it can be whichever day of the week or month feels like a fit for you and your people. Staying at home and catching up on work gives us peace of mind, but if a walk in the park and dinner out is what does it for you, do it! Give yourself the down time with the people you love to be with.

If you struggle with rest like I have, maybe doing nothing is exactly what you need to be doing.