Jennifer Aniston tells PEOPLE how she's learning to make time for herself after years of being a self-proclaimed workaholic

"Carving out time" for herself is something she says she's "gotten really good at in the last couple of years"

"I think it's so important because, if we're running on fumes because we are working too hard and not giving ourselves the opportunity to refuel our bodies mentally and physically, we're useless," she says

Jennifer Aniston is learning how to take a breather.

It's been more than 30 years since she broke out on screen as Rachel Green on Friends, and her career as soared ever since. These days though, she says she's learning how to balance her demanding work schedule with personal time.

"This is another thing that I've gotten really good at in the last couple of years, is carving out time," Aniston, 56, tells PEOPLE.

"Just saying to the team, 'The month of blanky blank is off.' We're not going to do anything for whatever happens to be the month that would work that year," she says.

Once she finds the right time, she tells her team, "'I'm going to take off. I'm going to have a vacation. There's going to be no work.' And you just kind of have to put it on your calendar."

"I think it's so important because, if we're running on fumes because we are working too hard and not giving ourselves the opportunity to refuel our bodies mentally and physically, we're useless," she says. "We're cranky, we're fatigued, we're under-slept. I think that the importance of that [rest] and recharge is imperative."

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Aniston previously told PEOPLE she's "a bit of a workaholic" and she knows it, so she's been trying to "take some time to travel and not work."

"It's so critical, I know, but I'm not good at it. Our work is diminishing returns at the end of the day if you're just working so much that you don't have any wonderful life experiences."

That patient and forgiving mindset is similar to how she's learned to approach her fitness routine too.

She told PEOPLE that she's "smarter about how I'm working out" nowadays, and part of that is being "much gentler" on her body. "You have to really honor where your body is, which I've gotten so much better at as I've gotten older," she said. "We love each other now, as corny as that may sound."

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Aniston credited that progress to Pvolve, the fitness brand she's worked with since 2023, and recently partnered with again to promote their new Longevity Bundle, which is inspired by her own training routine.

"As I've become more educated about the body over the years, I've been able to become stronger than I'd ever thought."