Summer often brings with it something that’s in surprisingly short supply for much of the year… a little more time.

For students, exams are over and the constant cycle of lectures, deadlines and revision finally begins to ease. Many staff are able to take annual leave, campuses become quieter and the pace of work often shifts, even if only slightly. Whether we’re travelling, going home to see family or simply enjoying a bit more daylight after work, summer gives many of us the opportunity to pause.

The interesting thing is that, for many of us, pausing doesn’t come naturally.

Instead of slowing down, we fill the gap. We start planning the next academic year, pick up extra work, book every weekend with travel plans or decide that this is finally the summer we’re going to learn a language, get fit, read twelve books and somehow become a completely new version of ourselves by September.

None of those things are inherently bad. Growth is important, and making the most of opportunities can be incredibly rewarding. But somewhere along the way, many of us have absorbed the idea that time only has value if we’re using it to achieve something.

Rest has quietly become something we feel we need to earn.

The pressure to always be doing

It doesn’t take much to notice how highly productivity is valued. When someone asks how we’re doing, “busy” has almost become the expected answer. Full calendars are admired, long hours are normalised and being constantly available can feel like part of the job description, whether we’re studying or working. Even our hobbies have become things to optimise, while social media constantly reminds us that someone, somewhere, seems to be making better use of their time than we are. It’s exhausting?!

For students studying abroad, that pressure can feel even stronger.

Studying overseas is often described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and in many ways it is. There are new cities to explore, new friendships to build and opportunities that might never come around again. It’s understandable that we want to make the most of every moment. But trying to make every moment count can be exhausting.

Sometimes, the most valuable part of living abroad isn’t another weekend trip or another item ticked off a bucket list but it’s allowing ourselves a quiet afternoon in the park, an evening spent cooking with friends or a day where we simply don’t have anything planned. Those moments matter too.

Rest isn’t the opposite of productivity

One of the biggest misconceptions about rest is that it’s the opposite of being productive when in reality, it’s one of the things that makes sustainable productivity possible. When we’re well rested, we’re generally better able to concentrate, think creatively, manage our emotions and cope with everyday challenges. We tend to have more patience with ourselves and with other people, and we’re often far better equipped to deal with stress when it inevitably shows up. When we’re running on empty, the opposite is usually true. Small tasks begin to feel overwhelming, decision-making becomes harder and our emotional resilience often takes a hit. Our brains aren’t designed to perform at full capacity indefinitely.

Just as our muscles need recovery after exercise, our minds need time to recover from sustained periods of learning, problem-solving, adapting and emotional effort. Rest isn’t something that gets in the way of performing well but it’s one of the reasons we’re able to perform well in the first place.

“Rest is not the absence of purpose. It is the place where purpose finds its strength again.”

– Leanne Elliott, mindhamok clinical lead

Why resting can feel uncomfortable

If resting sounds simple, why do so many of us struggle with it?

Part of the answer lies in the messages we’ve grown up with. Many of us have been praised for working hard, achieving more and pushing through tiredness. While there’s nothing wrong with ambition, it can become easy to link our sense of worth with what we’ve accomplished, like if we’re not doing something useful, we can start to feel guilty, lazy or as though we’re somehow falling behind.

More recently, psychologists, writers and activists have started talking about the politics of productivity. The idea isn’t that work or ambition are bad, but that many of us now live in cultures where our value is closely tied to our output. Success is often measured by how much we can produce, how available we are and how much we can fit into a day.

That’s where the idea of radical rest comes in.

Radical rest isn’t about giving up on our goals or avoiding responsibility but it’s about recognising that rest is a basic human need rather than a reward for working hard enough. It asks us to challenge the belief that we always have to be earning our downtime, and instead see rest as something that allows us to live healthier, more sustainable lives. In a world that’s constantly asking us to do more, choosing to slow down can feel surprisingly radical.

Rest looks different for everyone

Rest isn’t one size fits all. For some of us, it’s getting a little more sleep after a demanding semester. For others, it’s spending time outside, reading a novel, cooking, moving our bodies, catching up with friends or switching our phones off for an afternoon. Sometimes rest means being active and sometimes it means doing very little at all, but what’s important is that it leaves us feeling restored rather than depleted.

It’s also worth remembering that scrolling endlessly through social media doesn’t always give our minds the break we think it does. We all need downtime, but there’s a difference between distraction and genuine restoration. Sometimes the activities that feel simplest are actually the ones that allow us to reconnect with ourselves the most.

Making space for rest

One of the challenges with rest is that it rarely happens by accident… annoyingly. If we wait until everything on our to-do list is finished, we’ll probably be waiting forever. There will always be another email to answer, another application to submit, another project to start or another task that could be completed. Making time to rest often means making a conscious decision that our wellbeing deserves a place in our calendar too which means carving out the time.

That might look like protecting a weekend without making plans, saying no to something we don’t have the energy for, taking annual leave without checking emails or simply allowing ourselves an afternoon that doesn’t have to be productive.

None of those choices are lazy, in fact they are the opposite. They’re part of looking after ourselves in a way that’s sustainable, not just for this week or this summer, but for the long term.