Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

Stop to actually start working

We live in a culture that treats rest like laziness and exhaustion like a badge of honor. The irony is that almost nothing works well when it's perpetually on—your laptop crashes, your phone glitches, your relationships fray at the edges. But we rarely apply that same logic to ourselves. We run until we're burning out, then wonder why we're irritable, foggy, or unable to think clearly about anything that matters.

What makes Lamott's observation so practical is that it reframes rest not as indulgence but as maintenance. A few minutes unplugged—actually away from screens, obligations, and the relentless mental hum of productivity—isn't about being lazy. It's about recalibration. Your nervous system needs to reset. Your creativity needs to breathe. Your perspective needs distance from whatever's consuming you in the moment.

The deeper insight is that sometimes the most efficient thing you can do is stop. Not forever, not for weeks on a meditation retreat, but genuinely offline for a little while. Step away from the problem, the email, the anxiety. You'll often find yourself thinking more clearly, feeling less reactive, and actually more capable of handling whatever you were wrestling with. Your brain works better when it's been allowed to fully power down.