When it comes to vacation, it´s common to find three types of people:
So? Which of these three categories do you fit into? Depending on your response, this article will impact you differently!
Regardless of how you see this period of rest, I learned over the years as an executive that taking a vacation, on a regular basis and with quality, is critical not only for your balance and health in your personal life, but for your own professional success. Paradox? Not necessarily.
It is important to highlight that, to reap the benefits, vacations necessarily must have two basic characteristics: they need to be regular and with quality. For many professionals, it is difficult to take a vacation regularly, and worse, to tune off from work. I decided to write this article exactly to help all the professionals who fall into the second and third categories!
I point out below briefly the main benefits of vacations. I also show, in a simple and clear way, what to do before, during and the coming back from the vacations to be able to leave, stress-free and thus ensure that they are really effective. Let´s get started?
In your personal life:
– Reduces stress. Vacations allow you to distance yourself from the difficult pressures and emotions of everyday life, making room for lighter ones.
– Prevents coronary heart disease. With reduced stress, it also decreases the risk of coronary heart disease.
– Improves the quality of sleep. Less stress and the change in the daily routine also improve sleep quality and can help prevent insomnia.
– It increases happiness.
– Strengthens your relationships. It allows you to have quality time with people who are close to you, which is not possible in the daily rat race.
– It improves sexual life. More relaxed, lighter, with more time and, moreover, with the possibility of romantic walks just the two of you…
– Improves your health. With all the benefits mentioned above, your health as a whole will thank you!
If vacations bring all of this good into your personal life, automatically, they also have a great impact on your professional life.
Working with grace and creativity (Photo: jacoblund / iStock)
If vacations bring all of this good into your personal life, automatically, they also have a great impact on your professional life.
– Increases your productivity. The absence of vacations for a long period wears out your productivity. Regular vacations help maintain your efficiency.
– Prevents exhaustion. Taken to the extreme, the lack of rest associated with high levels of stress at work can drive you to exhaustion. Regular vacations help prevent this type of problem.
– Improves creativity. Opening the mind to new possibilities helps the brain make new associations. It is not uncommon to go on vacation, and in the middle of it, have great ideas for your work or a project, even if you haven´t stopped to think about it!
– Keep your focus. Regular vacations help you relax and make it easier for you to stay focused on work and projects between vacations.
The question you may be asking yourself now is: if you go on vacation, you get all these benefits, but how can I leave without stress and enjoy them with quality? Below I share some ideas …
1. Choose the right timing. If you want to increase your chances of leaving on vacation without guilt, less stress, and less risk of interruption, choose a time when the rhythm at work is slower and people, customers, and bosses are less demanding of you. This is probably the most important tip of all. If you are going with your spouse and/or children, you should also take into account a good time for them.
2. Distribute the holidays throughout the year. If you have been for a long time with a heavy demand (ongoing years without a vacation due to, for example, starting a new business) and you can´t take two or three consecutive weeks, do not be tempted to not take time off. Break your vacation into shorter periods and increase the frequency throughout the year. It can be periods of a week. Sometimes it is easier to reconcile smaller intervals and thus ensure that you enjoy many benefits in the same way.
3. Plan ahead. With time on your side, you can get better and cheaper travel packages, you can schedule work activities more calmly and more importantly: you have more time to set up and plan what you´re going to do on vacation. As my dad says, when you start planning, you’re already traveling – and this can be one of the most enjoyable parts of your vacation! In addition, it already begins to relieve the stress of everyday life, taking your head off work and leading to something lighter, similar to practicing a hobby.
Out of office message (Photo: SergeRandall / iStock)
4. Prepare your leave from work. This part is critical to going on vacation in peace:
a. Get help from colleagues to cover you on vacation;
b. Update everyone with the latest status of the processes and projects that are with you;
c. Define responsibilities, delegate and inform the organization and clients who can help them in your absence;
d. If it is necessary to communicate during the holidays, establish how the contact with you will be. Set the frequency that you´ll read emails, in which situations the team can call you etc;
e. Consider hiring temporary labor if demand is high and if the staff needs more hands;
f. Make sure everything is in order for you to leave;
5. Use technology to your advantage.
a. Prepare the phone and email with a holiday message and be specific in it: when you leave, when you return, whether or not you´ll check emails, if you will leave a telephone for emergencies, who is in charge for your activities during your absence with the contacts of everyone) and, finally, how your return will be and when you´ll answer the emails that have arrived during the vacations;
b. Turn off auto-notifications and limit access to work-related accounts. The secret here is to leave everything on the manual, that is, you go in and check what you want at the set times, but you are not at the mercy and tempted by the automatic notifications;
c. Create an email and get a cell phone number for the vacation period. That’s it! Create another one, temporarily, and give your cell phone to those people who can contact you in a professional or personal emergency. A vacation email can also be used to receive messages redirected by a filter from your work email. You may decide that you want to be forwarded messages from certain people (boss or clients, for example). This way, you´ll only receive what is most critical.
Just, please make sure that if you reply, do this from your work email, okay? Otherwise, the purpose of the vacation email gets lost…
6. Do not feel guilty about going on vacation. With everything planned, defined and delegated, go enjoy your holiday to the fullest with no guilt. If you happen to have to work in this period, do it accordingly to what you have set and tune off once you have finished. You need it, you deserve it, you can!
1. Try to do the opposite of what you do on a day-to-day basis. Visit beautiful, calm places, go on an adventure, practice exercises, meet interesting people, invest in yourself, spend quality time with those you love, do something extraordinary, relax… try to take advantage of this time to do things different from the routine and see how the quality of resting improves!
2. Do not over-structure your vacation and be open to the unexpected. Planning is cool! It facilitates your life and also lets you recognize unique and interesting opportunities that come your way. Just do not make a long checklist list and strictly follow everything by the book. If you do, your fellow travelers will want you gone! Enjoy whatever comes up that is cool but wasn´t in the planning and improvise with adversity.
Holiday lunch (Photo: martin-dm / iStock)
3. Stay away from everyday tasks, focus on new things or that bring you pleasure. Do you cook at home every day for the family? Well, then choose tours where hotels and restaurants will do that for you, okay?
4. Try to turn off and limit the use of technology. Believe it, giving yourself a vacation of technology does a damn good. Once I almost got to the extreme: I left my cell phone and iPad at home and made a trip without them. When I had to consult something, I used my wife’s phone. It was a vacation like in the 80’s, when I was the same age as my children! It was amazing!
5. If you have to work on vacation:
a. Limit the amount, focus on what is really critical and important, and comply to what you set before you left;
b. Work at pre-set times and disconnect between them;
c. If a crisis occurs, plunge into it, resolve it and disconnect again;
d. Do not complain about work on vacation or having to work during those periods. No one who is on vacation deserves to have a boring person remind them of work…
e. Write down good ideas that come up, but do not waste time with them now. Write down and immerse yourself in your ideas when you get back!
6. Leave something special for the end of the holiday. A special memory in the end, such as a special show, a special dinner, a special ride, will stay in your emotional memory for a long time and bring a sweet taste of wanting more.
1. Have a plan for the come back: return a day or two earlier to unpack things and schedule your email response to say that you´ll only respond to messages a few days after your return. Close your work schedule on the first day. All this will allow you to get back on track calmly and with tranquility. You´ll need this!
When I had no children, and returned to work straight from the airport, without even unpacking, the return was very painful. If you do, you can be sure that you will feel distress before the end of the holiday. Allow yourself time to get your things in order, at home and at work, and see how it will be good for you!
2. Tell and share your stories. This is the coolest part of the post-vacation! Each time you tell and share with people how your holidays were, the memories will come back, good emotions will come back and you will revive a bit more a very cool and special time.
3. Start planning your next vacation. That’s it! It’s to plan ahead, right? Well, what is the best time to start than right after the return?
Bon Voyage!
Cover photo credit – Couple on vacation (Photo: mihailomilovanovic / iStock)
