I'm Putting My Feet Up

Read time: 6 minutes

Hey, welcome back.

Last week, we talked about automating what people hate and charging for it. You can read that (and all past issues, here).

I'm officially on doctor's orders to put my feet up.

An innocent playtime at Center Parcs in the pool with my 4 year old, stubbed toe, infection, antibiotics not working, emergency toe surgery - you know, that old chestnut lol. The doctor was clear: rest. Elevate. Stop moving around so much. Let it heal.

Also, it's just a toe injury. Nothing too dramatic. Just enough that I can't leave my house for a few days which is incredibly annoying but also forced rest has its advantages - for example - content inspiration. Lucky us.

My first thought was how much work I'd miss. The meetings I'd have to reschedule. The momentum I'd lose. The week wasted sitting still.

Then I realized something. The doctor just gave me permission to do what I should have been doing anyway.

The Thing Nobody Admits

Rest isn't weakness. It's not laziness. It's not wasted time.

It's the ingredient that makes everything else work.

You already know this. Everyone knows this. Athletes talk about it constantly. Sleep research proves it. Every productivity expert mentions recovery.

And yet none of us actually do it until we're forced to.

We wait until our body breaks down. Until a doctor tells us we have no choice. Until we physically can't keep going.

Then we rest. Reluctantly. Resentfully. Counting the days until we can get back to "real work."

Like rest is just the annoying thing between productive periods instead of being the thing that makes productive periods possible.

What Actually Happens When You Don't Rest

Your decisions get worse.

Research shows decision quality drops 40% by late afternoon compared to morning. That's just one day of mental fatigue.

Imagine weeks of it. Months. Years of making important choices while running on fumes.

Your creativity disappears.

The insights that come in the shower or on walks? Those happen during rest. Your brain needs downtime to process, connect ideas, and solve problems.

When you're constantly doing, you're blocking the very thing that produces breakthroughs.

Your body starts breaking down.

Not dramatically. Just slowly. A toe injury here. Back pain there. Insomnia. Anxiety. Burnout creeping in so gradually you don't notice until you're already deep in it.

Then you're forced to rest anyway. But now it takes ten times longer to recover because you pushed through for so long.

The Pattern I Keep Seeing

Every successful person I know has learned this eventually.

Not from reading about it (sorry to admit this newsletter is about as likely to help save you from yourself as they are for me lol). In reality, it is usually from breaking down and realizing you had no choice - like moi.

The founder who kept pushing until they ended up in hospital. Then suddenly discovered that resting three days a week made them more productive than grinding seven.

The athlete who ignored minor injuries until they became major ones. Then learned that one rest day prevents three weeks of forced recovery.

The creator who burned out completely and had to stop for months. Then came back realizing that building in actual breaks made the work better and more sustainable.

All of them learned the same lesson the hard way: rest isn't optional. You either choose it or your body chooses it for you.

The only difference is whether you rest strategically or collapse eventually.

What I'm Learning Right Now

Sitting here with my feet up, I'm noticing things I missed while moving constantly.

The emails that felt urgent three days ago don't matter anymore. They got handled or they didn't. Either way, the business kept running.

The meetings I thought I couldn't miss happened without me. Decisions got made. Work got done.

The momentum I was afraid of losing? Still there. Turns out momentum doesn't come from constant motion. It comes from consistent direction. Those are different things.

I'm also noticing I'm thinking more clearly. Ideas I've been stuck on for weeks are suddenly obvious. Problems I couldn't solve are resolving themselves.

Not because I'm working harder on them. Because I finally stopped working on them long enough for my brain to actually process.

Tell you what else. I'm constantly 'too busy' to do that latest thing on Claude I've been dying to teach myself. Well - not today. Next 3 days I'm going to have some time to do just that - and that feels creative and productive. This toe - blessing in disguise really.

The Science That Makes Sense

Your brain needs rest to consolidate learning. Sleep research shows this clearly.

When you learn something new, your brain doesn't lock it in immediately. It processes it during rest. During sleep. During the downtime between activities.

If you never rest, you never actually learn. You just keep collecting information without processing any of it.

Physical recovery works the same way. Muscles don't grow during workouts. They grow during rest. The workout breaks them down. Rest builds them back stronger.

If you never rest, you're just breaking yourself down repeatedly without the rebuild phase.

Mental performance follows the same pattern. Studies show that strategic breaks improve focus, creativity, and decision making more than pushing through does.

The best performers in every field aren't the ones who work the most hours. They're the ones who rest strategically so their work hours actually count.

What Rest Actually Looks Like

It's not scrolling your phone. That's not rest. That's just replacing one form of stimulation with another.

It's not grinding through emails while sitting down. That's just work in a different position.

Real rest is doing nothing productive. On purpose. Without guilt.

Sitting with your feet up and letting your mind wander. Taking a walk with no destination. Lying down in the middle of the day. Staring out a window.

The things that feel like wasting time are often the things your brain needs most.

The Permission You Don't Need

I needed a doctor to tell me to rest before I'd actually do it.

That's embarrassing to admit. But it's true.

Without the injury, I would have kept going. Told myself I'd rest later. After this launch. After that meeting. After things calm down.

Things never calm down. There's always something next.

The doctor just gave me what I should have given myself: permission to stop.

You don't need a doctor for this. You don't need an injury. You don't need permission from anyone.

You just need to decide that rest is as important as work. That recovery is as valuable as action. That doing nothing is sometimes the most productive thing you can do.

What I'm Doing Differently

When this heals and I can move freely again, I'm not going back to the old pattern.

I'm building rest in. Deliberately. Strategically. Not as the thing I do when I'm forced to, but as the thing that makes everything else possible.

One full day a week with nothing scheduled. No meetings. No calls. No obligations. Or at least - that's my plan, let's see how long it lasts!

Real breaks between intense periods. Not fake breaks where I'm still checking email. Actual time off where work doesn't exist.

Saying no to things that would fill every gap. Protecting white space in my calendar like it matters. Because it does.

This isn't about being lazy. It's about being sustainable.

The version of me that rests strategically will outperform the version that grinds constantly. Not over a day or a week. But over years.

The Truth

You can rest now by choice. Or rest later by force.

Those are your options.

Resting by choice means you control when and how. You build it in strategically. You recover before you break.

Resting by force means your body decides for you. Through injury. Through illness. Through complete burnout that takes months to recover from.

Both end with rest. The only question is whether you're smart enough to choose it or stubborn enough to wait until you have no choice.

I'm sitting here with my feet up because I waited too long. Don't be like me.

I also have 2 weeks left of my 30s and my celebration is a weekend of dancing with my friends in Ibiza so I really better bloody recover in time lol.

To actually resting, Dan

P.S. Look at your calendar right now. When is your next full day with nothing scheduled? If the answer is "I don't know" or "not for weeks," you're already running on borrowed time. Your body will collect eventually. Better to pay now on your terms than later on its terms.

Acquired

My favourite podcast is back, and they've just done an episode on F1 and the business of F1. As someone who has just done a business deal in partnership with an F1 team, this was a must-listen, but wow, it's just four hours of high-octane brilliance. Must listen.

Listen Here

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis

This is the book that really launched his career as the writer of The Big Short and Moneyball, etc. It's all about his time working in the financial markets before he became a famous author and screenwriter.

Read Here

The Boys

The new series of The Boys, obviously. With the rest of the world, what else would I be watching?

Watch Here

A 2020 study published in Emotion found that people who learned to accept their “non-ideal emotional states”, including low motivation, low energy, and neutral days, experienced significantly higher overall well-being and lower stress.

The key insight: self-acceptance amplifies emotional resilience, while self-judgment weakens it.

📌 Quick Takeaway →

Your average days aren’t failures; they’re emotional training grounds.
When you stop punishing yourself for being human, everything in your life compounds faster.

→ Link to study

In my goal to help more entrepreneurs/people who are looking to level up their careers, I've just started taking 1-1 consulting calls (only 1 a week)

Why book a call? Some of my expertise/success:

I've built 5 startups. 1 win, 1 fail, and 3 still going.
E-Commerce: Heights - with revenue over £20M a year.
Community: Foundrs, one of the UK's top founder communities
Podcasting: Leaders Media - I bootstrapped a media company that made the UK's top business podcasts including Secret Leaders, with over 50M downloads across the network.
Health/Mental Health: Overcame burnout, insomnia, depression & anxiety in pursuit of success. Hear me on Steven Bartlett's on Diary of a CEO
Angel Investing: I've invested in over 100 startups
Coached & Mentored: Certified coach & 5* mentor on Mentorpass
Personal Brand: Over 400,000 followers across social

So if you're interested in booking a session with me to talk all things business or building a personal brand, book for 30-minutes or 45-minutes. (limited spots).

Book a Call with Dan