I couldn't think straight last night. I was having difficulty concentrating. The wonders of the internet pulled at the back of my mind. Before I knew it I was wandering through random tabs. I was unfocused. Unproductive.

So I quit. I stopped trying to force myself into a mindset that was eluding me. I grabbed my iPad, went upstairs and read the things that were pulling me away from my work. Sleep followed soon after.

The rundown for the podcast still needs to get written. But I'll spend thirty to forty-five minutes doing it this afternoon instead of five or six hours last night. I'll get more done in less time and feel better about the fact that I'm not fighting against myself

Sometimes we do need to suck it up and get to work. If we quit every time we feel like it, we won't get much done. But every once in a while it's OK to stop forcing it. If it's 8:30 PM on a Friday, maybe it's time to click "save" and go do the things you've been looking forward to all day.

We find ourselves in a world that allows us to work all the time. The computers we carry in our pockets are powerful enough that we never leave the office. It's easy to throw a Bluetooth keyboard in my bag on the way out the door.

I can work just as hard from the coffee shop as from my desk. These are great things. But more often than not we just make our lives harder.

We need to walk a careful line between working hard and resting. Our minds need time to bounce back. To process the day. To understand what happened.

I'm willing to bet that if you invest in your off-time as much as you do your work you'll feel more productive. I know I do when I remember to.

How often do you rest? Do you feel your work suffers when you don't get any downtime?