Unhack Your Summer: Why Real Rest Beats “Productivity Hacks” Every Time

You’ve seen the headlines. You’ve scrolled past the reels. From 4 AM wakeups to bullet journals so elaborate they need footnotes, we’ve entered an era of Peak Productivity Theater.

For folks working in academia, summer is supposed to be “the off-season.” The time to reset. To finally finish that book draft. To wrap up assessment reports. To plan new curriculum. To, you know, not collapse. But instead of a hammock and a book, many of us end up anxious, with a vague sense that we’re somehow wasting time if we’re not “maximizing our summer.”

Let us say this loud enough for the people still multitasking in the back: You are not a machine. And you don’t need to be “hacked.”

Who Are You Listening To?

Before we talk about productivity hacks, or time optimization strategies, let’s ask one critical question: Who, exactly, is giving this advice, and do they live on the same planet as you?

Should you wake up at 4 AM, meditate for two hours, jump in your infrared sauna, spend an hour in your sensory deprivation tank, and then blend up a smoothie made with kelp harvested from your very own aquatic garden? I don’t know, maybe. But is that advice coming from a single person with no kids, a home gym, a personal chef, and a team of assistants? And (this is critical) is their entire income based on convincing you that they’ve cracked the code to perfect living? For most of us, trying to replicate a routine like that is essentially unpaid overtime. If implementing “simple” productivity hacks becomes a whole other job on top of your actual job, what exactly are we optimizing here? Exhaustion? Guilt?

It’s okay if your summer doesn’t look like some productivity influencer’s. Life is messy, spontaneous, complicated, sometimes boring, and doesn’t always photograph well or make for a snappy LinkedIn post. But it’s real and it’s yours. And while you’re navigating your life’s unique responsibilities, productivity gurus are navigating brand deals. That’s not the same game, and it sure doesn’t need the same playbook.

Does It Make Sense and Is It Even Possible?

There’s a clip floating around—originally from Ed Mylett, now immortalized (and parodied) in dozens of Instagram reels, one of which never fails to make me laugh—about how the truly elite don’t live one 24-hour day. No, they divide their day into three chunks: 6 AM to noon, noon to 6 PM, and 6 PM to midnight. That way, they can “live three days in one.” It's a compelling soundbite—until you think about it for more than five seconds (which, I’m sure is almost another entire day to that guy). Because labeling a few hours as “a full day” doesn’t magically bend time. It’s not a life hack. It’s rhetoric.

You can’t create more time by simply renaming it. No matter how optimized your schedule is, your brain and body still need rest, recovery, and some margin for error. You still have meetings. You still have to make dinner. Pretending you can just “reset” your day every few hours doesn’t make you more productive; it makes you a quirky person that eats three breakfasts (I assume).

Advice like this doesn’t just shame people who can’t “time travel”, it fuels a whole wave of aspirational coaching that sounds empowering but often unravels under the weight of its own impracticality. One guy swearing by this three-day-day isn’t evidence, it’s an anecdote. There are some plausible, research-supported strategies for improving how we use our time (and we’ll get to those). But, as a general rule, if it doesn’t make sense or seems impossible, it probably is.

What Might Actually Work: Start with Knowing Yourself

The most effective productivity strategy probably isn’t a secret formula, it’s knowing yourself. You’ve been living in your body for a long time. That means you already have valuable data: when you focus best, what drains you, what gives you energy, and what kind of schedule makes your life feel full rather than frenzied. When productivity “hacks” ignore that lived experience and lack consideration for your larger context, like parenting, caregiving, chronic illness, shift work, or social connection, they aren’t really hacks. They’re performance art. There’s no universal blueprint—if there was, we would have figured it out way before 2025. But there are patterns and research findings that may help you think differently about how you structure your time, especially if they affirm what you already know about yourself.

Biology Can Determine Your Best Schedule

If you’ve always hit your stride around 10 PM, this might not be a failure of willpower, it might be biology. Research shows that people’s energy and alertness patterns vary widely based on “chronotype,” or the natural timing of their circadian rhythms. A large-scale study found significant cognitive and sleep differences between morning and evening chronotypes, including how well they function at different times of the day. If you’re a night owl, you may not do your best work at 6 AM and that’s okay. Work with your pattern, not against it, whenever possible.

Respecting Your Need for Recovery Isn’t Laziness—It’s How Brains Work

Let’s be clear: your brain isn’t a machine, and trying to run it like one is a fast track to burnout. Research shows that cognitive fatigue accumulates during prolonged mental work, and—this is key—quick fixes like 10-minute breaks every hour might not be enough. A 2023 study found that even with regular breaks, participants experienced significant mental fatigue after a full day of simulated office work. Worse, their cognitive function hadn’t fully bounced back even after 4.5 hours of rest. In other words, recovery isn’t instant, and it isn’t something you can “hack” your way around. When your brain’s tired, it needs real rest, not just a stretch or a snack.

Reclaiming Rest as a Leadership Skill

Especially for those of you in leadership roles, be it in higher ed or any other field, modeling rest isn’t laziness—it’s leadership. When we glorify grind culture or chase “success formulas” that require ignoring your own biology, context, or values, we’re broadcasting to everyone around us (colleagues, employees, even students) that achievement demands self-erasure. It doesn’t.

This summer—whether your schedule is slowing down or ramping up—give yourself permission to rest and have fun without guilt. Rest isn’t just a luxury; it’s the only “hack” worth your time. It makes space for better thinking, deeper creativity, and the kind of presence that no to-do list can manufacture. And yes, you might even find yourself more productive afterward. But that’s not the point. You’re a human being, and your worth isn’t tied to how many tasks you checked off today.

Take the vacation. Sleep in if your schedule allows. The work will still be there next week, next month, next semester. But if you rest now, you can meet it with clarity, energy, and maybe even a little joy. You don’t need to hack yourself to be enough. You already are.