You’re Taking Breaks Wrong
Erasing the just-woke-up-from-a-bad-nap feeling and taking breaks that actually improve your life.
Erasing the just-woke-up-from-a-bad-nap feeling and taking breaks that actually improve your life.
Great naps are a myth to me. I envy all the people out there who can fall asleep and actually wake up feeling more alert and ready to go. If I take a nap in the middle of the day, that’s the end of the day. Sleep is the only thing my brain wants to do. It’s like day drinking, a lunch cocktail never ends at lunch.
For me, the myth of the quality nap also applies to the vacations and time off of work. Going away from work doesn’t make me more productive, it reminds me how much I love hanging out with my family and makes me consider playing the lotto. When I am gearing up to go away on vacation I sure I will come back rested and motivated, but it never works out that way. I may take a week off of work, but it takes another two weeks to get back into the swing of things.
Like naps that don’t leave me feeling rejuvenated, vacations make me less productive. It’s not because I hate my job, or don’t want to get back to work, the problem is that work doesn’t stop when you go away and nothing demotivates me like a seemingly insurmountable pile of work.
If you are like me, you might think the only way to accomplish what you want is to never take a break, but it turns out that you are just taking your breaks wrong. Let’s learn how to take a break that will actually work.
1. Don’t say you are going to totally disconnect
You aren’t going to do it. You are going to check your email. You are going to respond to important emails and clients and you are going to piss off your family because you told them you were disconnecting but instead of enjoying the world’s largest armchair, you are looking at your phone.
Instead, set aside time each day to check in, tell everyone before you go on vacation that those are the times you are going to check in, then do it. If everyone knows what to expect, people are going to get less antsy about it. Your vacation buddies will be able to plan around it and forgive it and your coworkers will know that they aren’t alone if something big comes up. But you are also giving the people you work with a chance to problem solve things themselves. You have to trust the people you are working for, working with, and who work for you.
2. Keep a notebook with you
Some of my best ideas come when I’m doing something other than working. But if you get excited by new ideas, you’ll want to get started on them the moment you think about them. That’s where a trusty old notebook comes in extremely handy. Whether the digital or analog kind, jot the ideas down and then get back to your Mai Tai.
3. Stop thinking about your vacation as a break from work
If you care about your job or your business, you are never really taking a break from your work. It will always be on your mind. Instead of imagining your vacation as a break from your work, think about it as an opportunity to improve yourself.
4. Lose the guilt
We live in a culture that truly despises laziness. But taking a vacation isn’t about being lazy (see above) it’s about following an opportunity. You don’t have to feel guilty about taking a chance on yourself.
I always took breaks wrong. I’d make a bunch of promises about what was going to happen and it was disastrous. The people I was vacationing with were upset because I wasn’t really with them, and the people at work learned they could always pass things on to me because I’d step in, no matter what was happening. I would resent work for taking me away from my family, but I did it to myself.
Now I feel as though I can actually vacation. I come back refreshed and even though I still love being with my family more than anything, because my family time is truly of a high caliber, it makes getting back into the swing of things much more manageable.
Happy vacationing!