Question: I keep banking my vacation and there is no good time to take it. Here comes another Memorial Day weekend stuck at home.
Answer: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is an old adage that now has scientific proof behind it. Our brains work more efficiently with rest and our performance increases when we shift our attention away from doubling down on a task and towards nature and beauty.
Accomplishing your work and meeting your responsibilities may seem like drinking water from a fire hose, but the reality is that in every business there are ebbs and flows of work. Your job is to take a step back and assess your workflow. In fact, your ability to do this is an indicator of your mastery of your role—a prime consideration when promotions are considered. Think about the following questions:
- What is the role of your department/organization during the first quarter? Now consider workflow and deliverables by month?
- Second quarter? Third? Year end?
- When do most people take vacations? Schedule your vacation– stop being the back up.
- Have you convened a family meeting to incorporate school vacations and key events on your business calendar?
My approach is to schedule a getaway or stay-cation every quarter. Remember that a “working vacation” is NOT a vacation: If you think that you are good at multi tasking, please take a look again at the scientific data reported in the NYT article “Brain Interrupted”:
In fact, multitasking is a misnomer. In most situations, the person juggling e-mail, text messaging, Facebook and a meeting is really doing something called “rapid toggling between tasks,” and is engaged in constant context switching. As economics students know, switching involves costs.
Ask yourself: what is the cost of not taking a vacation? To you? To your family and to your overall productivity? When you answer the question your reaction may be:
