People pushing themselves to the breaking point when they could get better results by just stopping whatever they're doing and take the week off.
And it's because in our rush to not get corporate like those people we despise, we've become even worse than them and our desire to fit in and gain acceptance and recognition have caused us to go all out like the fellow on the bike and we're just causing pile ups which would be better off if we cleared the road.
Everyone has several people on their team who would do well to just stay home and let the others do their thing.
Amundsen had studied human behavior and efficiency under stress. He knew a constant pace every day was way more efficient than doing epic effort. So he will restraint his people and not let them do more than a given distance each day, I think it was 30 miles or so.
This gave his team an edge against constant epic efforts on Scott part.
A week off is probably too long. What I do, because I can, is taking days off just when I consider I need it. This day or days off is a day you enjoy life and after them you feel plentiful and strong.
Much better than wasting the day being forced to work and generating very little work and burning yourself off.
I actually measure the actual time I do meaningful work so I know exactly how better it works.