A change is as good as a rest

To change your daily routine is as good as taking a holiday

This idiom dates back to the Victorian period. The meaning of the idiom is first found in the book ‘Christian Gleaner and Domestic Magazine’, written by B.J. Holdsworth in 1825, where he states: ‘Change of work is as good as play’.

However, the exact words as in the actual idiom are from the title of an anonymous poem published a few years later in 1857.

This isn’t the source of the phrase as we now use it though. The currently used wording of the proverb is first found as the title of a poem that was widely published from 1857 onward. The poem was published in the English newspaper ‘The Hampshire Advertiser’, and states: ‘Remember that indolence preyeth on health/A change is as good as a rest.’

I can’t afford to take a holiday right now, but I might move to a different project at work. I think a change will be as good as a rest for me.

I’ve given up my career as a doctor to do more social work. I need a break and this change will be as good as a rest for me, while also helping other people.