Updated August 2025 with latest research on rest and productivity
Read Time - 6 Minutes
Let me ask you something: when was the last time you took a proper break without feeling guilty about it? And I'm not talking about scrolling through your phone while eating lunch at your desk – I mean actually stepping away from work completely.
If you're like most high-achieving women I work with, you probably can't remember. You've been conditioned to believe that taking breaks is lazy, unproductive, or somehow a sign that you're not as dedicated as you should be.
But here's the truth that might surprise you: taking breaks isn't lazy – it's absolutely necessary for your success, your health, and your sanity.
The "Always On" Culture That's Burning Us Out
We live in a culture that glorifies being busy. We wear exhaustion like a badge of honor and compete over who got the least sleep. Somewhere along the way, we started believing that our worth is directly tied to our productivity.
This is especially true for women in corporate environments who feel like they have to work twice as hard to prove themselves. You might think that taking breaks will make you look less committed, less capable, or less deserving of that promotion.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) now recognises burnout as an occupational phenomenon, yet we continue to push ourselves beyond our limits. As researcher Dr. Christina Maslach notes, "Burnout is not a problem of the people themselves but of the social environment in which they work."
But what if I told you that the opposite is actually true? What if taking strategic breaks could actually accelerate your career success?
What the Research Really Shows
Here's something that might shock you, Microsoft found that employees who took regular breaks were significantly more productive than those who worked non-stop. This isn't just feel-good advice – it's hard data backed by neuroscience.
Your brain isn't designed to run at full capacity all day without rest. The prefrontal cortex – the part responsible for decision-making, problem-solving, and creative thinking – becomes fatigued after sustained use, just like any other muscle.
Dr. Matthew Lieberman from UCLA explains: "When we're not actively focused on the outside world and the mind is allowed to wander internally, the default network takes over. This is when we make connections between disparate ideas and have our biggest insights."
But here's what most people don't realise: there's a specific way to take breaks that actually enhances your performance, and most people are doing it completely wrong.
The Hidden Neuroscience of Rest
When you take a proper break, several fascinating things happen in your brain:
Your default mode network activates – this is when your brain processes information, consolidates memories, and makes creative connections. It's literally when your best ideas happen.
Stress hormones like cortisol decrease - chronic elevation of these hormones impairs memory, decision-making, and immune function.
Your attention networks reset, allowing you to return to tasks with renewed focus and clarity.
Research from the University of Illinois found that brief diversions from a task can dramatically improve one's ability to focus on that task for prolonged periods.
The Perimenopause Factor: Why Rest Becomes Even More Critical
If you're a woman in your 40s or 50s, there's another crucial layer to consider. Perimenopause fundamentally changes how your body and brain respond to stress and fatigue.
During this transition, several things happen that make breaks even more essential:
Estrogen decline affects stress resilience – estrogen helps regulate cortisol, so when it drops, you become more sensitive to stress and need more recovery time.
Sleep quality often deteriorates – hot flashes, night sweats, and hormonal fluctuations can disrupt restorative sleep, making daytime rest crucial for cognitive function.
Brain fog becomes common – many women report difficulty concentrating and memory issues during perimenopause. Strategic breaks can help clear mental fatigue.
Energy levels fluctuate unpredictably – what worked in your 30s might leave you completely drained now.
As Dr. Lisa Mosconi, neuroscientist and author of "The Menopause Brain," explains: "The perimenopausal brain is working harder to maintain the same level of cognitive performance. This increased effort requires more energy and more recovery time."
Yet most workplace cultures completely ignore these biological realities, expecting women to maintain the same pace regardless of their life stage.
The Hidden Cost of "Powering Through"
When you skip breaks and push through fatigue, you're not just tired – you're actually:
- Making more mistakes (which take longer to fix later)
- Missing creative solutions that come during rest periods
- Building up chronic stress that affects your sleep, relationships, and health
- Setting yourself up for eventual burnout – which can take months or years to recover from
The Harvard Business Review published research showing that employees who take regular breaks report higher job satisfaction, better work-life balance, and are less likely to leave their positions.
But here's the kicker, if you're in perimenopause, the effects of not taking breaks are amplified. Your stress tolerance is lower, your recovery time is longer, and the physical symptoms can be more intense.
The Permission Problem: Why Smart Women Can't Rest
The real issue isn't that you don't know breaks are important – it's that you can't give yourself permission to take them.
Sound familiar? That voice in your head saying:
- "Everyone else seems to manage without breaks"
- "I don't have time – there's too much to do"
- "People will think I'm not committed"
- "I should be able to handle this"
This guilt around rest is keeping you stuck in a cycle that's actually making you less effective, not more. It's also rooted in some deep cultural and psychological patterns that many high-achieving women carry.
Perfectionism plays a huge role here. Research by Dr. Brené Brown shows that perfectionism is strongly correlated with anxiety, depression, and burnout. When you believe that your worth is tied to your productivity, rest feels like failure.
The Gender Factor, Why This Hits Women Harder
Women face unique challenges when it comes to taking breaks:
The "second shift" phenomenon, even after a full day of work, women typically handle more household and childcare responsibilities, leaving little time for genuine rest.
Imposter syndrome – research shows women are more likely to feel like they need to prove themselves, making breaks feel risky.
Hormonal fluctuations – monthly cycles, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause all affect energy levels and stress tolerance in ways that aren't acknowledged in most workplaces.
Social conditioning – women are often raised to prioritise others' needs over their own, making self-care feel selfish.
What Strategic Rest Actually Looks Like
There's a specific approach to breaks that high-performers use – it's not just about stepping away from work, it's about strategic rest that actually enhances your performance.
The women I work with learn something crucial: not all breaks are created equal. Scrolling social media doesn't provide the same cognitive reset as a walk in nature. Checking emails during lunch doesn't give your stress response system time to recover.
Real rest involves:
- Complete disconnection from work stimuli
- Activities that engage different parts of your brain
- Movement that helps process stress hormones
- Genuine connection with others or nature
- Mindful awareness of the present moment
The Ripple Effect of Strategic Rest
When you start taking proper breaks, something interesting happens. You don't just feel better – your entire approach to work changes:
- Decision-making improves because your prefrontal cortex is well-rested
- Creativity increases because your default mode network has time to make connections
- Stress resilience builds because your nervous system gets regular recovery time
- Relationships improve because you're not constantly operating from a place of depletion
But perhaps most importantly, you start modeling healthy behavior for others around you – your team, your family, your friends.
The Leadership Opportunity
If you're in a management position, you have a unique opportunity to change workplace culture around rest. Research consistently shows that teams with leaders who model healthy boundaries and rest practices have:
- Higher productivity and creativity
- Lower turnover rates
- Better employee satisfaction
- Reduced sick leave and burnout
As leadership expert Arianna Huffington says: "We need to move from a culture where burnout is a badge of honour to one where well-being is a sign of strength."
Your Next Step: Breaking the Cycle
If you're tired of feeling guilty about rest, or if you're stuck in the "always on" cycle and don't know how to break free, you don't have to figure this out alone.
The strategies I use with clients address both the practical side (how to take effective breaks) and the psychological side (why you feel guilty about rest in the first place). We work on rewiring the subconscious patterns that make rest feel "wrong" or "lazy."
This is especially important if you're navigating perimenopause, where your body's needs are changing but your mindset about productivity might still be stuck in your 30s.
The goal isn't just to take more breaks – it's to fundamentally shift your relationship with rest so that it becomes a strategic tool for success rather than something you feel guilty about.
Ready to learn how to rest without guilt and actually boost your productivity? As a clinical hypnotherapist and Transformational Menopause Coach specialising in helping high-achieving women overcome burnout and perfectionism, I help you create sustainable success strategies that honour both your ambitions and your changing needs.
Follow Me for honest insights on perimenopause, burnout recovery, stress management and weight loss and how to keep thriving when life throws you curveballs.
You know that team member who stays late every night, redoes work that's already perfect, and seems physically unable to hit "send" until everything is absolutely flawless? They're probably your star performer – and they're also probably burning out faster than anyone else on your team.
Here's the thing about perfectionists: they look like they have it all together on the outside, but underneath that polished exterior, they're often running on empty. They've created impossible standards for themselves and are stuck in this exhausting cycle of overwork, self-criticism, and never feeling like anything they do is good enough.
And if you're managing women in their 40s and 50s who are perfectionists? Well, add hormonal changes into the mix, and you've got a recipe for burnout that can hit like a freight train.
But here's what most people don't realise: perfectionism isn't something you're born with. It's learned behaviour, usually picked up in childhood. Which means it can be unlearned – but most perfectionists have never questioned whether these patterns are actually helping or hurting them.
Ready to understand why your highest performers might be your biggest burnout risks, and discover practical ways to support them without enabling the destructive patterns? Here's what you need to know.
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