Should You Take Breaks When Trying to Master Something?

[SQAAD]

Let's say that i want to master something, or build a new habit like reading every morning. Should i do that every day with no breaks or is it ok to take every week some rest days? And how long should the rest be ? 1 day? 2 days? 3 days?

When you 1st begin doing something you can do it for 1-2 weeks straight,  but after a while you feel burned out. This video @20:20 said that you shouldn't break the chain of your good habits otherwise this is the start of a bad habit...

I think it is not sustainable to do something every day without breaks. For example i can't eat ''clean'' all the time. Sometimes i have the need to eat some sh*tty junk food & It restarts my passion for eating ''clean''. Otherwise massive ego-backlass will happen and i'll binge like a madman for days in a row.

Any thoughts and advice?

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by SQAAD

[Rilles]

Yes, I have almost burned myself out going hard on my purpose for the past 3 years. Pace yourself! There is no rush! If you blow on a fire too hard youll extinguish it rather than fan it. 

[Dryas]

Habits aren’t work though. It’s the stuff you do on autopilot.

[SQAAD]

@Rilles

7 hours ago, Rilles said:

Yes, I have almost burned myself out going hard on my purpose for the past 3 years. Pace yourself! There is no rush! If you blow on a fire too hard youll extinguish it rather than fan it. 

I'm interested to know, how do your rest days look like? How many times a week?

[Rilles]

32 minutes ago, SQAAD said:

@Rilles

I'm interested to know, how do your rest days look like? How many times a week?

My advice wont really fit yours but I study social science for about 3 weeks for uni and then I get back into my Life Purpose fully for another 3 weeks, sometimes its more, sometimes I go for 2 months without LP but Im in a transition phase right now, still have to work on a good balance. Everything is a bit messy.

My best advice is to not go too hard all at once, work a little bit everyday so you keep the little spark lit. Dont work 16 hours of day or something like that, thats not mastery, thats addiction and overexertion. 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Rilles

[Johnny Brake]

You don't get it, just do it. It doesn't matter when how whatever .... just do it on a consistant basis

[Jacob Morres]

it depends on the habit i think. some habits need rest like working out. but some habits dont like drinking water in the morning

you can workout everyday too just the workout cant be strenous everyday otherwise like you said, burnout

btw burnout is very well studied to my knowledge im sure you can find better knowledge than me 

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2019/01/01/burnout-cause/

Edited November 17, 2021 by Jacob Morres

[Yarco]

You need a rest day from reading? Gimme a break. This isn't intense weightlifting. Reading is literally something most people do as a leisure activity, for fun in their spare time. You're making excuses. Most people find it much easier to stick to things every single day instead of taking breaks. 1 day off becomes 2, which becomes a week...

The only reason you get burned out at something is if you're overdoing it. No way you'll get burned out from reading 20 minutes a day. Most kids read more than that every day for their entire education. You probably read more forum posts / social media / etc than that each day.

If you can't read for 20 minutes a day you have a problem with willpower, focus, and boredom... not burnout.  The best way to counter that is to stop social media things that give you dopamine hits every few seconds... like TikTok videos, and scrolling on various sites.

Need a rest day from brushing your teeth too?

Edited November 18, 2021 by Yarco

[hamedsf]

Fuck yes! It's part of your mind operation. it goes forward two steps and gets backward one step and it compensates that one step backward while you're taking a rest.

[mememe]

whatever you do, if you decide on building constant routines or decide to do it with breaks, make sure that you‘ll be constantly picking it up again. motivation curve can flatten over time and you usually stop at a moment when motivation is low, so maybe on the resting days you alternate with another routine you pick for that day. at least the routine of habit tracking would be a good everyday practice.