THE DREAM IN ACTION

Vacation is important because…

Vacation, as the Europeans have discovered, is critical to ones ability to contribute effectively in the workplace. As I’m in Sweden this week and our project time lines are surely impacted by month long (or more) vacation schedules, I figured there would be no more appropriate time to write about vacations and the value of them.

Note: This trip is for business and not a vacation, however, I am spending a free weekend in Stockholm. A mini vacation I guess.

Although the “American way” seems to criticize the European vacation mentality, I think that it may be important to consider the value of extended breaks for multiple reasons.

1. Taking a break allows one to recollect their focus and return to work with a laser focus on their work.
2. A vacation allows one to recharge their batteries, release the pressures that can build at work, and return energized and excited.
3. Taking a vacation, perhaps a luxurious one, gives you a sense of reward and helps you to feel really good about giving 110% to your work.

Don’t focus on refocusing.

It’s important that when taking a vacation you don’t think ‘to much’ about work. Recently, there has been a big push towards the “stay-cation” or taking your vacation time at home. This is being encouraged due to conditions in the economy and also the green aspects of reducing your travel when vacationing. I am strongly against this. I believe that vacation is for getting away, seeing something new, and putting yourself in a different environment so that you can remove your thoughts from the norm and focus on something new.

Focusing on something new is the key to getting ‘mentally’ away. Using this time to focus on refocusing is counter productive. If you do this, you’re really still focused on work. You’re essentially trying to find a way to work better. I am a huge fan of continuously finding improvements in behavior and maximizing productivity but your vacation is not the appropriate time for that.

Lastly, although your away from work, I believe it is important to stay productive on vacation. If you stay in bed until noon everyday during your break and never really accomplish anything then you may be well rested but you’re going to feel like you’ve wasted your time away from work. Make sure to keep a busy schedule even on vacation so that you can look back to your time off and feel that you’ve made the most of it. When I’m on vacation I like to get up as early as the night before will logically allow :) and maximize the time I have to see new and interesting things. That’s why I love abroad travel so much, there are always new experiences to be had.

Finally get some rest.

To combat the maximize your time sentiment, it is important to get much needed rest on a vacation. Although it may seem impossible to satisfy both of these ideas, here is a solution: Early in your vacation it’s all good to maximize your day. During the beginning of your vacation, do what you want. Get up early, stay up late, and do it all in between, it’s fine. However, towards the end of your break it’s important to be conscious of the amount of rest that you’re allowing yourself. You want to return to work fresh, sharp, and at the top of your game!

For people who have trained themselves to operate on only a few 3-6 hours of sleep, you must be careful! I’m not going to tell you need to get 8 hours of sleep, I usually get about 6 until the weekend (then I binge sleep). However, you do need to be careful not to lose your ability to only sleep a few hours. If you take your 2 week or your 1 month vacation and sleep 10 hours a night, you will not be able to jump right back into your 4 hour plan without any affect. These habits are conditioned so you can potentially derail your sleep pattern during your vacation, so be careful.

The most fun, must energizing, and most rewarding aspect of my vacation is the time I get to spend with the people I care about. In August of 2007 my girlfriend, now fiance, and I went to Ireland for 2 weeks and drove the southern coast from Dublin to Galway and back. The trip put us in so many situations that challenged our relationship but made it so strong. One night we got to Cork and realized we did not have a hotel, B&B, or hostel booked. We ended up sleeping in a tiny Nissan Micra Sport all night…freezing. Yes, it sucked but the time we spent and laughs we shared together were priceless. If your spending time with the right people, it almost doesn’t matter what you do for your vacation time.

You earned it.

Finally, by taking a vacation, whether its 2 weeks or 8 (the French), you’ll be able to be proud of your time off. Knowing that I have a vacation coming up always helps me to drive towards it knowing that my hard work now will really make the off time sweet.

Because of the build up that comes with a vacation, I seriously recommend doing them big. Do something that you will remember. Don’t do the stay-cation at home, instead plan a trip to somewhere you’ve not been before that will create memories. It’s a big world out there so don’t do the same trip over and over. Explore!

When you come back to work you’ll be relaxed, re-focused, and rested. In short, you’ll be ready to kick ass. The time spent off will have a significant affect on your productivity and your contribution to your business. It will also have a profound affect on the relationships in your personal life. You’ll be able to relate with people from another part of the world and you’ll have common experiences shared with the people you traveled with.

Vacation is worth taking as an employee and it’s worth paying for as the employer. Vacations are all around valuable and necessary. I hope you enjoy yours!