TOW#501 — Holiday without work
I’ve had quite a few chats lately about holidays — how we all need to relax from time to time and get away from our daily problems — and one thing that keeps coming up is whether it’s possible to go on holiday and truly dedicate ourselves to it, i.e. to not think at all about work and the responsibilities we leave behind.
So, this week’s tip, apart from writing it for myself as motivation, is for those who have trouble leaving and forgetting about things at home.
Here’s some things we can do to reduce, as much as possible, our connection to our working obligations and fully devote ourselves to the holiday:
- Closing any open issues: get a little more active before leaving on holiday and try to complete all tasks so that you don’t leave any loose ends. At the same time, if you are able to, delegate some of the tasks to specific colleagues. Of course, you’ll need to leave detailed instructions on what needs to be done and how.
- Out-of-office notification: at least it means some of your co-workers will see that you’re on holiday and won’t write to you or call you.
- Day before leaving: if you can, don’t hit the road immediately after work or the day after, but instead try to give yourself a free day before you go. This will give you time to get better organised, to pack without rushing and to sort out everything properly. And, most importantly, you’ll help the brain to cope more easily with the transition from ‘active state’ and thinking about a million things, to a state of relaxation.
- Adaptation: connected to the point above, it takes the brain a few days to relax and get into a new state. That’s why sometimes when we’re on holiday we get annoyed that we can’t relax right away, and it takes us a few days to ‘arrive’.
- Mentally detaching from work: once we’re already on holiday, we can no longer physically influence the things that are happening at work. This rule is one of the most important. Because, if while on holiday we spend our time thinking about all the things / projects / tasks we left behind (what will happen, how will it turn out, what if… etc.), it’s just like being at work (even worse actually). It’s precisely because of this that many people say things like “I don’t know how to relax on holiday when there are so many things on my mind”. Therefore, we must consciously cut our minds off work.
- Fewer and precisely defined working intervals: if you’re checking your phone or computer for emails, then forget about the whole thing! Your mind will constantly be active and geared towards work. If you’ve managed to cover all of the above-mentioned points, then there shouldn’t be any need for work during your holiday. However, because that’s sometimes very hard to achieve, and if you really have to work or spend a bit of time on work related things, then it’s best to set aside a specific time for it. Just don’t think to yourself “Oh, I’ll do that at some point today”, because you could end up thinking about work the entire day. Decide on a specific time during the day for work, and then enjoy the rest of the day, and if possible make it last a few days.
- Postpone: sometimes, if you need to finish something important (as in really urgent), and you can’t do it that day because you didn’t find the time, just postpone it for the next day. And don’t worry about it. That one thing definitely won’t mean you’ll lose your job / business / position.
I hope you have a relaxing summer holiday.
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
Petar Lazarov
“Tip of the Week” Team member
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