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The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Illinois chapter.

You can’t be a girlboss if you aren’t first taking care of yourself. But just like many other things in life, that’s easier said than done. College is all about being on the grind and as we round out midterms our workloads are all starting to pick up. But college is so much more than just the work. We are so much more than just our grades and the rest is actually an essential aspect of life. In fact, when you really look at it the rest is essential to even begin to be able to get the work done.

Why we feel we can’t rest

The reason we feel like we can’t just take an hour out of our day to rest and relax is because of this guilt we feel from society whenever we are not actively working on something. Time is money and if you chose to spend it sitting on your couch binge-watching Netflix then that is deemed as “wasted” time that could have been spent doing something more productive. This guilt is referred to as productivity guilt and it has become programmed into our brains to the point that when we do decide to take a moment of rest and sit down to stream show we get in our heads thinking about all the other things on our to do list that we could be doing that would be a more productive use of our time. 

how to prioritize rest in your life

So how do we reprogram our brains and our mindset about rest so that we can be the girlbosses we are meant to be. The first step to prioritizing rest in your life is checking in on yourself. It’s easy to get caught up in everything to the point that you reach burnout. When you take the time to really check in with yourself and self-reflect on how you are feeling and truly acknowledge when you are feeling overworked and burnout then you are able to take a step back to give yourself time to rest.

The biggest struggle with making time to rest in your life is getting out of your head and letting go of productivity guilt. Whenever you find yourself rotting in your bed or making time to binge a show and you start to get into your head about how you could be doing something more productive the first step can be to remind yourself that you do not have to earn rest. Taking time to rest is you actively listening to your body and doing what you need to do to be able to feel ready to start on all the work you need to do. We have to stop getting in our heads and internally putting pressure on ourselves to always be working and making the most with our time because at the end of the day the most important thing is you and your well-being. Just like you don’t have to earn water to live you don’t have to earn rest which is also an essential piece of life and enables you to be the best version of yourself. Taking time to rest will ultimately make you more productive because when you do begin the work you will feel rested and more prepared than if you didn’t take the rest. 

Jessa Kimble

Illinois '26

Hi! I am a current junior majoring in sociology. In my free time I love reading, baking, hanging out with family and friends, going to cute coffee shops to get coffee or matcha, I absolutely love crafting and journaling, and I love being outside and going on hot girl walks! I love scrolling on Pinterest and creating cute Pinterest boards to help inspire me and my creativity. I love going shopping and getting to explore my own fashion and am a huge believer of “I feel good if I like my outfit.” I love hosting dinner parties and planning fun social activities with my friends.