The work-recovery cycle: Making an effective and restoring recovery
You’re working hard because you want to achieve something, you want to develop in some area, or you want to manage something. Then how can you make an effective recovery after this hard work?
When you recover effectively, you can get back to work earlier and with more energy. Alternatively, you will have more time for leisure, more time at the summer place, or more time with the kids.
Sport psychologists in a similar way seek to increase the performance of their athletes by making the recovery of these athletes more effective.
Then what makes for a revitalizing recovery?
Aiming for recovery
What could be the most important may simply be to remember to focus on making an effective recovery.
It is easy when having a break or getting home after work to do something that is neither effective work, nor effective recovery or valued leisure.
One example of such an activity could be watching tv.
After working hard, instead, it could be useful to let the main priority be to recover effectively.
Relaxation and enjoyment
Recovery may perhaps be effectively encouraged by aiming for relaxation and enjoyment.
It seems as if one tenses up when working hard, then some relaxation in order to get rid of this tension could be restoring and make for a sense of vitality and energy. Some examples of activities that will bring about relaxation are exercise, stretching, resting or getting a massage.
Enjoyments are often relaxing and can leave one feeling more creative, inspired and ready to take on whatever is next on the schedule. It could also be distracting, could take your mind off the perhaps intense times that may have been a part of one’s work. A few examples could be having a coffee downtown, talking to a friend, or perhaps listening to your favorite e-book.
Moreover, what makes for an effective recovery would be more than just relaxation and enjoyment. Among other things, good sleep at night, drinking water, exercising and eating properly.
Takeaway
What makes for an effective recovery could be to remember to:
- Aiming for recovery, and
- Focusing on those activities, perhaps relaxation and enjoyment, purposefully
A similar perspective:
- Kellmann, 2010. Preventing overtraining in athletes in high‐intensity sports and stress/recovery monitoring. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports. (about hard work and effective recovery, from an athlete and sport psychology perspective)
