Learn to Rest, and Rest for Real.
Spring Festival greetings
First of all, to my friends, partners and family!
Happy Spring Festival! Wishing you a lucky Year of the Horse!
㊗️ Wishing you, and those who love you and those you love,
that everyone you hold dear stays by your side, and every wish in your heart comes true.
Amid all the rushing about, may you keep your composure;
amid lofty ambitions, may you never forget gentleness.
The world is vast, and the heart roams free.
Me, off the grid
I'm so sorry that I didn't reply in time to the many greetings friends sent me this Spring Festival.
I've been trying to focus on resting (though I haven't done it all that well). This is a really important thing: since I started my company in 2025 my rhythm has been a bit out of whack, so I tried to use the Spring Festival to tune myself back in.
Today I'm getting ready to go back to work, and before I head off, I want to write a little about "rest".
"Leisure" makes us civilised
Real spiritual growth in human beings
happens precisely in the time that isn't driven by utility.
As Russell said: leisure makes us civilised.
A civilised society must give people leisure.
Without leisure, there is no real thought or creation.
—— In Praise of Idleness, Bertrand Russell
In an age of information overload,
we have holidays, but we aren't necessarily resting.
Because passive rest isn't necessarily recovery. Lying around scrolling on your phone, eating and drinking to excess, sleeping until you wake up naturally — none of these are necessarily good ways to rest. In those moments our nervous system hasn't switched modes; it is still in a state of high-frequency information input, rapid decision-making, emotional swings and external evaluation.
On this, the Harvard Business Review has put forward a concept ——
Leisure Planning.
Design your own recovery system
What is "leisure planning"? Leisure planning emphasises three things:
Setting personal goals
Building social connections
Learning and growth
The point isn't "efficiency", but resting intentionally and a sense of engagement.
Eleven field studies of more than 2,400 working professionals showed that, compared with passive forms of leisure, people who do leisure planning have more energy, more stable moods, greater happiness, a stronger sense of autonomy and competence, and higher work engagement and creativity.
The good part is that planning doesn't take more time — it only takes changing how you do it.
My Spring Festival "recovery system"
1️⃣ Nervous system recovery
At least 1 hour of screen-free time every day
Getting some sun
Deep breathing
Low stimulation, to reset the sympathetic nervous system.
2️⃣ Metabolic system recovery
Setting aside one "light-eating day"
A 15-minute walk after meals
Drinking fresh homemade yoghurt
Letting the body recover, for steadier moods.
3️⃣ Cognitive system recovery
Making fewer decisions
Less pointless socialising
Removing one long-standing source of drain
Saving cognitive energy
4️⃣ Emotional system recovery: doing housework, decluttering; journalling, sorting through my emotions; cuddling cats and hugging dogs; feeling and taking care of my own emotions
5️⃣ Meaning system recovery: giving gifts to friends
Reading the cards friends gave me for my birthday, and feeling loved.
Coming back to my original intentions
Besides sleeping, exercise is rest too
Stretching
Gentle yoga
And allowing myself to do nothing at all
Simply zoning out, completely emptying my mind;
binge-watching the TV dramas Yongzheng Empire and Zhu Yuanzhang with Grandma.
After all, balance matters more than perfection.