What do you think about when you hear the word rest? I almost always think of rest as something that is only done between other things, and for most of my life, I always gave those other things more attention than any rest periods between.
Lately I've been practicing something quite different: I am trying to prioritize rest over activity, to rest first and do later. Some days I fail miserably at it, but I shall persevere because I see the benefits when I succeed at it.
Resting first means easing into my day, mindfully and gently. It means saying no to requests for my time so that I can take regular pauses throughout each day.
It means being purposefully unproductive by doing things like reading my novel in the middle of the afternoon between work commitments. Resting first means looking at my Day-Timer at the beginning of each month and scheduling days off—and then keeping them free.
As a recovering workaholic, I've learned that figuring out my rest schedule is more important than my work schedule. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm on my way.