Prologue | Before I completely collapse from exhaustion, I need a moment to pause.

PART 1｜Why do I get further from what I want the more I try?

A third-time student who was cornered by the enlistment corner decided to try again seven times, but ended up passing?
Why Your Face Got Better in Your 40s “I’ll figure it out somehow!”
Letting go of obsessions rather than goals
What you see when you slightly shift your gaze from the way you were using it
The more you try, the worse it gets, and the more you let go, the better it gets.
Your predictions for the future will most likely be wrong - Nari's story
There are times when you have to taste it to know if it's poop or soybean paste - Kyungho's story

PART 2｜What are you working so hard for, and why?

“Why on earth do you live like that?”
The first step to letting go: expressing your emotions fully.
Why Kintsugi porcelain, almost thrown away, is so expensive
Am I digging my own grave, or is it circumstances that have shaped me?
A structural look at why we put in so much effort
Practice finding your core emotions: What scene in life would you most like to avoid?
Living with the brakes half-pressed at every moment—the story of Broccoli Nerma's Yoon Deok-won.
People who have their own 'breathing space'
Sometimes all we need is to stop thinking too much - Jimin and Yoonbum's story

PART 3｜A time to fill the empty space left by effort with energy 'Off Ment
When was the last time you walked empty-handed?

It's not that I'm watching it because it's particularly interesting, but for you who only watch YouTube
Margaret Thatcher, who said rest was a luxury, said a word from a British princess who predicted her downfall.
Do you have any op-ment?
39-year-old Jang Jae-yeol realizes what he was missing after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.
My Funeral Experience - Joo Won's Story
Finding time to relax and let go completely
How to Create a "Kerencia," a Place of Relaxation and Recovery
The Importance of Conscious Aloneness - Eun-kyung's Story
Off-point as a time of re-immersion
When you can't let go, recognize it as a schedule.

A letter from the first reader to experience the op-ment｜
“I hope your daily life becomes a little more comfortable.”

Epilogue | The moment I lived with effort, the moment I let go and live,
After all those moments, the moment you will definitely meet

“I think it would be better if we just did this much more,
“I should stop here and rest…”
But that day never came
A must-read for you!

★★★★★ Includes a self-diagnosis sheet to objectively identify the reasons for your efforts and specific practices for strategic rest.
★★★★★ New work by Jang Jae-yeol, author of the bestsellers Microritual and Reconnect
★★★★★ Highly recommended by psychiatrist Kim Ji-yong, psychologist Lee Seo-hyeon (Cool Summer Night), Yoon Deok-won (Broccoli You Too), and Oh Eun (Poet)!

In 2018, a survey of 23,000 Seoul citizens was conducted to investigate the state of mental health, and the results showed that “I feel like I am the only one who is falling behind.
And 56.1% of people thought that “the gap caused by this lag is unlikely to be repaired.”
What will the situation be like in 2025, several years later?
A survey of 1,000 people found that 41.3% of respondents cited stress-related distress as the cause of their mental health problems, 31.4% cited depression lasting several days, and 31.2% cited persistent anxiety.
There are still a significant number of people who complain of anxiety, depression, and stress.
In such a situation, who are most at risk? Those who, while not "burned out," still feel a sense of injustice, frustration, and subtle cracks in their daily lives. Those who, "I'm tired, but not sick," continue to push themselves as they always have, telling themselves that if they just keep trying a little harder, they'll do better. They'll get better. Those who, with diligence, push themselves every day.
However, the ending that such people will face is more likely to be a sad ending where they either lose energy and fall out, their health deteriorates, or they become unable to carry out daily life due to burnout, rather than achieving the achievements they desire.

《Off-ment》 can be said to be a kind of 'burnout prevention guide' for people who are strict with themselves, have a strong desire to do well, and are conscientious.
Jang Jae-yeol, a counselor and writer who has studied youth burnout and mental health more deeply than anyone else, has met with over 45,000 people over the past 12 years as the head of the non-profit counseling group 'Unnies Who Played a Little'.
Through this new work, he proposes a three-step strategic rest method called “Offment” based on insights from accumulated counseling data so that “people who want to do better and live better” can achieve the same results while working less and resting better, rather than experiencing a situation where the harder they work, the worse the outcome.

“Why is it that the harder I try, the further away I get from what I want?”
“What are you working so hard for, and why?”
“Do you have any offence?”

The term 'off-ment' is derived from 'OFF', meaning stop, and 'MOMENT', meaning moment. It can be easily understood by thinking of it as turning a switch on and off.
However, in this book, the author uses the concept of 'off-ment' not simply as a 'rest' for healing, but as a rest that restores energy and becomes a stepping stone to greater achievement and immersion.
In particular, by asking three big strategic questions, it encourages people to look deep inside themselves and ask, “Why do we move further away from our desired state the more we try?” and “Why and for what reason do we try so hard?” It also emphasizes that those who want to do better must not only try as they have done so far, but rather, must take a break.

The author persuasively explains why we sometimes insist on trying too hard, using an experiment by German psychologist Karl Dunker from 1945 as an example.
The content of this experiment was to observe the reactions of the subjects when they were given a paper box containing a candle, matches, and a pushpin and given the mission of “hanging the candle on the wall without letting the candle wax run out.”
Most people tried to stick candles into the wall with a tack or melt the candles to stick them, but the answer to the experiment was actually simple.
Empty all the pins from the cardboard box, place the candle inside the box, and then stick the pins into the cardboard box itself and attach it to the wall.
When we become fixated on the use of an object, we tend to think only of that object. This is called 'functional fixation', and the author points out that the reason we make efforts is ultimately due to this functional fixation.
Ultimately, it is difficult for people who have achieved success and accomplishments in this way to consider other methods.


By adding real-life stories of people who lost their health and job opportunities because they worked too hard, putting 'rest' at the bottom of their life's priorities, it vividly shows us the ending we will face if we live only by working hard.
In addition, this book helps you to become more objective by asking questions on various worksheets to see if you are striving for something that is mistakenly considered an 'obsession or stereotype' as your goal, and if there is no way to achieve your goal other than by really striving for it.
Based on this, a person who has found the fundamental cause of ‘what is it for (goal)’ and ‘why am I putting in so much effort (core emotion, cause that makes me put in so much effort)’ can design an ‘off-ment’, which corresponds to a specific methodology, in the direction of overcoming that cause.
If anxiety or worry is the cause, there is a therapy that allows you to ask yourself where those emotions came from; if the environment is the problem, there is a 'lock app digital detox' that allows you to forcibly separate work and daily life; how to make 'Kerencia' that helps you find peace of mind; and 'eye-stopping meditation' that increases the density of immersion. This book is full of methods that can be applied to your daily life even if you invest only 10 minutes or so a day.


‘Rest’ is not something you do when you have time.
It is an essential act for re-immersion and achievement!
Vivid examples of various people and
Brilliant insights from the author's experience

This book contains stories of people who have maintained their careers longer by working hard when they need to and resting when they need to, like living with the brakes half-pressed, and people who have gone through periods of working overtime as if eating, but know exactly how to rest and recover their energy during other times, and who have overcome those periods of hardship healthily and have become better at re-immersing themselves.
Above all, the author honestly captured the moments when he practiced 'off-ment' to overcome the crisis while pushing himself from his 20s to his 40s, when he suffered burnout, quit his job at a large company, and when his health deteriorated to the point of being diagnosed with stomach cancer. He then heard, "Your face feels relaxed and you look good."


This is the story of how I decided to take the college entrance exam 7 times after trying to get into Seoul National University 3 times and then let go of my obsession and got accepted.
This is the story of a man who ended up quitting his job after blowing most of his salary on taxis to and from work, and then living a second life as a counselor, healing his own wounds and those of his peers through self-reflection writing.
This is the story of how, despite being suddenly exposed to the media, receiving attention, and feeling pressured, he found his own routine that allowed him to achieve bigger goals and not lose energy by practicing the 'off-ment' methodology in this book.
If you listen carefully to those stories, you will realize, “Oh, working hard isn’t always the answer,” “I shouldn’t push myself to the point of overload, but I shouldn’t ignore the signals that I need to rest,” and “I can rest well and reach my desired point without reducing my goals.” This will give you the courage to refute the anxiety that “If I rest, will I fall behind?”
For those who still have the desire to do better and live well, this book will provide healthy options other than 'trying harder.'
For those who want to achieve greater things without giving up on their goals, "Offment" will be another powerful weapon.