I Thought I Couldn’t Afford to Rest. I Was Wrong.

It was 2025. I had just realized that the remote job I’d finally earned was a scam. I’d worked myself to the bone all year, and when it was finally time to celebrate my first month’s pay, nothing came in. It felt like I had nothing to show for a year of grinding.

I was mentally and physically exhausted. Between the screen fatigue, the confusion, and everything else, I could barely get out of bed. I had to drag myself into each day when all I’d dreamed of was building a fulfilling career.

I knew I needed a break from everything. I wanted to slow down and reflect on my next steps. But I kept telling myself that I needed money before I could afford to rest.

Time sprinted. December holidays arrived, but I didn’t rest. I was still attending webinars, job hunting, fighting for this and that, and overthinking everything.

My mind was so clouded that I couldn’t think clearly about my direction. My body? It didn’t even feel like mine anymore. Sore. Lethargic. It was practically begging me to stop. Do nothing, girl. Do nothing.

But I ignored those signals well into February. I kept hunting for the next job instead of accepting that maybe I wasn’t ready to jump into another one. I needed to take care of myself, rethink my approach, and seek help.

I knew I needed to step away, let my mind and body rest, and refresh my skills before getting back out there. But, lo and behold, I found myself in another draining on-site role. Yes, it paid some bills, but by the end of the month, I was burned out. I was so exhausted that even my boss noticed it on my face. I became apathetic and gradually lost interest in the job.

That’s when I started questioning whether working hard was really enough. I remember something Myron Golden said in a YouTube video I watched earlier this year.

He said hard work makes you a better person and makes difficult things easier over time, but “hard work is not the key to success. It’s the key to exhaustion.” He went on to explain that success comes from doing the right things in the right order.

Around that time, while reading How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, I came across what would become one of the best pieces of advice I needed at that point in my life:

At first, it wasn’t making sense. Like, huh? Tell that to a Nigerian. Rest before I’m tired? So the food go fall from sky? Abi wetin? As a videographer friend of mine says, “Ah, man no dey rest.”

I guess some of us grew up with the impression that if you’re not out there hustling under the scorching sun, especially when you’re trying to make it in tech, you’re probably jobless or lazy.

Anyway, following the advice from the book, I went off-grid. Took a mini staycation, thinking, oh well, we’ll figure things out. God is with me.

That rest gave my body the energy it had been longing for. My mindset around rest began to change. I started scheduling breaks like appointments in my daily routine. After all, what can you do with poor health?

I started setting break reminders, practising the 20-20-20 rule for eye rest, taking at least 10 minutes away from my desk every hour, treating myself to an outing at the end of each month, and taking Sundays off work and away from my laptop.

Why? Because I wouldn’t wish that kind of fatigue on myself or even my enemy. It sucks.

One thing that really helped me was pausing the job search. Turning off all those job alerts was the best move I made for my mental well-being. I told myself, “I’ll resume when I’m ready. The jobs won’t go extinct.”

Around that time, I started reframing my mindset from, “I need someone to hand me a job,” to, “I have skills that can bring value and solve a business’s problems.”

My renewed career strategy saved me a ton of energy from draining job hunts. I began to focus my energy on doing the work that I’d like to get hired for.

When I returned from the long break, my head felt much lighter. My energy and mood had improved. I got a digital marketing scholarship and a paid remote gig out of nowhere while I was “doing my thing.”

And mind you, I had carefully evaluated the gig instead of rushing to accept like I had in the past.

That was one sign that my approach to work was beginning to change.

I believe now that overworking myself was never the path to my dream life. I’ve learned to take things easy and work at my own pace, even though the internet keeps buzzing with AI developments here and there. (Those developments won’t matter much if you collapse from work-from-home burnout.)

In this slow productivity mode, I’ve learned that rest isn’t a reward for productivity. It’s taught me a lifestyle where I can do the right things in the right order at a reasonable pace.

Still working on it, but I never forget to be mindful of resting before I’m tired.