---
name: recovery-day-planner
description: "Plan a real rest day — active recovery, genuine downtime, and a reset — instead of either grinding through or collapsing into a guilt-scroll. Use when asked how to spend a rest day, plan a recovery day, I'm burnt out and need to recharge, or what should I do on my day off. Produces a recovery plan matched to what you're recovering from (physical, mental, or both), gentle active-recovery options, restorative downtime that actually restores, light admin to reduce next-week stress, and permission to do less."
homepage: https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/skill/recovery-day-planner.html
metadata:
  {
    "openclaw": { "emoji": "🧠" }
  }
---

# Recovery Day Planner

A rest day fails two ways: you fill it with chores and errands until it's just unpaid work, or you collapse into an all-day scroll and end up more depleted and guilty. This designs a day that actually recharges you — matched to whether you're physically wrecked, mentally fried, or both — with genuine restoration, a little friction-reducing admin, and explicit permission to do less.

## What This Skill Produces

- **A recovery read** — what you're actually recovering from (hard training, a brutal work week, poor sleep, emotional load)
- **Active-recovery options** — gentle movement that helps without adding fatigue (walk, stretch, easy swim)
- **Genuine downtime** — restorative activities that recharge (nature, real rest, connection, a hobby) vs. the fake rest that drains
- **Light reset admin** — the small, optional tasks that make next week lighter, capped so it's not a work day
- **Permission to do less** — an explicit low-effort version for when you're truly empty

## Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:
- **What you're recovering from** — physical (training/labor), mental (stress/overwork), emotional, or all
- **How depleted** — a normal rest day or genuinely burnt out
- **Time** — a full day, half day, or a few hours
- **What recharges you** — nature, socializing, solitude, creating, moving, doing nothing
- **Any must-dos** — the one or two things that genuinely can't wait

## Framework: Match The Depletion, Restore For Real

1. **Diagnose the depletion.** Physical fatigue wants gentle movement and sleep; mental fatigue wants a change of scene and low-stimulation; emotional load wants connection or solitude and kindness. Match the day to it.
2. **Active recovery, not more load.** Light movement aids physical recovery — but keep it easy; a "rest day" that's secretly a workout isn't rest.
3. **Choose restorative over fake rest.** Doomscrolling and binge-watching often deplete; nature, real downtime, hobbies, and connection restore. Steer toward the latter.
4. **Cap the admin.** A little tidying/planning reduces next-week stress — but time-box it hard so the day doesn't become chores.
5. **Permit less.** If they're truly empty, the win is rest itself — give an explicit permission-to-do-nothing version, guilt-free.

## Output Format

### Recovery day: recovering from [what] · [how depleted] · [time]

**Read:** you're mainly [physically / mentally / emotionally] depleted → lean into [X].

**The day (flexible)**
- Gentle movement: [option, kept easy].
- Restorative block: [what actually recharges *you*].
- Optional reset admin (max [30–60 min]): [1–2 small things].
- Real rest: [nap / nothing / slow meal].

**If you're truly empty:** skip all of it — [the do-less version]. That's a valid, good day.

## Quality Checks
- [ ] Matches the plan to the type of depletion (physical/mental/emotional)
- [ ] Active recovery stays genuinely easy, not a hidden workout
- [ ] Steers toward restorative activities over draining "fake rest"
- [ ] Caps any admin so the day isn't secretly work
- [ ] Includes an explicit permission-to-do-less option

## Anti-Patterns
- **Turning rest day into a chore list.**
- **Prescribing a hard workout** on a recovery day.
- **Defaulting to screens** as "rest" when they deplete.
- **Guilt-tripping** toward productivity.
- **One template** regardless of physical vs mental exhaustion.

## Example Trigger Phrases
- "How should I spend my rest day after a hard training week?"
- "I'm completely burnt out — plan me a recharge day."
- "What should I do on my day off to actually feel rested?"
- "A recovery day that isn't just errands."
- "I have a free Sunday and I'm mentally fried — help me use it well."