I stumbled upon a fabulous little video this week by Oliva.unplugged that explores the difference between rotting and resting. You can check out the original video, but rather than send you down a social media rabbit-hole, I’m going to break it down here because I think she’s touching upon something really important and relevant.

Have you ever noticed that no amount of napping or rotting on the couch watching Netflix seems to cut it when it comes to “recovering” from an intense day? Or why you often still feel tired even after 8 hours of sleep?

Olivia breaks down 7 types of rest that your brain and body need (according to research).

Physical Rest

To heal the body

• Light stretching
• 20‑minute power naps
• Restorative movement

Mental Rest

To quiet racing thoughts that hijack focus

• Pomodoro method / single‑tasking sprints: 25–50 minutes on one thing, then a short mental reset
• 5–10 minute brain dumps to clear loops
• Open‑tab pruning: close everything not needed for the current task

Sensory Rest

To reduce the amount of inputs

• Putting our phones down
• Dimming the lights
• Sitting in silence
• Avoiding overstimulation

Creative Rest

To restore inspiration

• Walking in nature
• Going to a museum
• Creating something with your hands

Emotional Rest

To release and process feelings

• Talking to a therapist
• Creating voice memos
• Speaking candidly / having honest conversations

Social Rest

To be nourished by supportive connections

• Spending time with people who energize you
• Setting gentle boundaries: mute threads, decline optional invites
• Spending time with people where you can be quiet together without performing

Spiritual Rest

To reconnect with purpose or values

• Meditation, breath prayer, or mantra repetition
• Engage in initiatives or activities that make life feel bigger than yourself or your problems
• Values check‑in: jot three ways today aligned with your values
• Nature ritual: sunrise or sunset sit‑spot, no phone

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Rest is something we need to sustain ourselves, just like food. If we think about these as micro + macro nutrients for recovery, then when we starve ourselves of one or more of these areas for too long, we don’t feel full or satiated.

Now, this is where “rotting” comes in. When we’re tired, we easily gravitate toward bingeing, doomscrolling, and numbing behaviours that give our brains quick dopamine hits, which feel really good in the short term, but are incredibly damaging in the long term.

If you still feel tired even after “resting” on the couch scrolling for a few hours, consider the ways that you may be not only neglecting your mind and body, but making yourself even more tired.

It doesn’t take much to start shifting gears; you don’t have to completely overhaul your life or create some unachievable 25-step restoration routine.

Micro-rests add up, so take a moment consider what makes you feel truly restored across these different categories.

Are there any categories that have been neglected for a little too long?

What are some simple examples you could integrate into your daily life to help get even a few minutes a day of healthy restoration?

I know, I know, it’s easier said than done.

I think for me this is one reason I love cooking so much; it feels like an activity that nourishes me across most of these categories, especially if I’m creating food for others. It’s physically nourishing. It requires a certain amount of focus and creativity. It means shifting my focus from work or my phone to the ingredients in front of me. It makes me feel connected to people, to nature, to creativity. I’ve long compared cooking to meditation, and reading through the list of types of rest, I think I better understand why.

How do you rest, and how do you rot?

No judgement, just a question to reflect on, and a list of examples to get you started in your journey to better rest.

You're welcome to duplicate the database list if you find it helpful.

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In Notion land

Make with Notion wrapped up a few weeks ago (catch the replays here), and Notion unveiled some... changes. Some of these may or may not affect how you work in Notion.

Mixing Data Sources

​Thomas Frank wrote a fantastic breakdown of the new "data sources" feature. Seriously, it's so thorough, there's no point in even trying to make content around this; he's got it covered.

Spoiler alert... while I believe this change helps Notion internally, it doesn't necessarily help users. I suspect it will only lead to more confusion (especially for less experienced users). As a general rule, I actively recommend people do not mix data sources within the same database (unless you have a REALLY good reason to so).

You could already mix data sources before this change via linked views of databases, which is how we recommend folks build anyway, so I will continue to recommend the previous method, and say: use this feature at your own risk! We believe it's way too easy to accidentally delete data, have data sprawl across your workspace, and make permissions even more complex if you are mixing data sources with different permissions.

New Maps property

They also launched their nifty new Maps feature! Have you given it a whirl yet?

Notion Agent And of course, they announced their new Agent feature which you can now personalize and give specific instructions for things it should store in memory. I'm still a bit of an AI grump, so I cannot say Notion AI has been a game-changer for me personally, so I use it pretty sparingly. ​ ​

That's all for this week; I hope it's not as grey and gloomy wherever you are!