Boost

by Jamie A. Gruman, Deirdre Healey

This is a book about recovery. Not recovery from drugs, alcohol, or surgery, but recovery from the numerous and relentless demands we face in handling our everyday obligations. These demands take a toll on us. Regardless of whether they come from paid employment, caring for young children, looking after elderly parents, or trying to get through graduate school, our daily obligations weigh heavily on us. They deplete our energy. They drain us of motivation. They leave us feeling weary and exhausted. If you tend to feel worn out and want to know how to replenish yourself, this book is for you.
We should be able to recover from our daily obligations during our downtime. But many of us don’t. In this book we will explain why downtime is inadequate for helping us recharge our batteries, and present you with an effective alternative. Recent scientific developments from around the globe have shed light on the processes that reverse the draining effects of our obligations and help us successfully recover in our leisure time. Not only that, research also reveals that when effective recovery occurs it not only recharges our batteries, but makes us feel happier, makes us healthier, and makes us better at handling the demands that drained us in the first place. We call this boosting to reflect the multi-pronged benefits of successful recovery. In this book we draw on the most cutting-edge science to explain how to transform our ineffective downtime into valuable uptime. Uptime is the time away from our obligations that successfully satisfies the factors that lead us to feel replenished, recharged, recovered, and gives us a boost.

Genres: Nonfiction

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 6, 2018

About the author

Jamie A. Gruman, (Ph.D., University of Windsor) earned his doctorate in Applied Social Psychology with a specialization in organizational psychology. He is currently an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and has previously taught in both the psychology departments and business schools at the University of Toronto and the University of Windsor. An award-winning researcher, he has published articles in such journals as Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Human Resource Management, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Human Resource Management Review, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and the Journal of Managerial Psychology. His current research interests pertain largely to positive organizational psychology, and his point of entry into this topic is often the organizational socialization process. He is also the founding Chair of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association.

Reviews

[Tatiana Machado-Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a ton of research and an interesting methodology to reframe how we think of “downtime” and “uptime”. A couple of ideas that stayed with me are: in your uptime, focus on doing activities that charge resources you don’t use at work. Secondly, resting idly is not the same as recharging. Oftentimes, just “relaxing” won’t make us feel recharged or energized. We need to be more intentional about how we use micro and macro breaks in order to sustainably feel energized on a day to day basis. The only thing I didn’t love about this book is how repetitive it can feel. It could definitely have been a bit shorter if ideas were organized in a more succinct way.