Have you ever returned from vacation and not felt rested?  Is it the activities? The travel involved? The people you are vacationing with?  Or perhaps it is how many days you take off from vacation.

That was my problem.  I discovered a way to ensure I got real rest on vacation.  Here is my thought process on vacation.  Try it and see if you don’t come back more rested.

Triple Your Rest By Doubling Your Vacation

My One Week Vacations

A seven day vacation was nice.  But, I hardly felt rested.  It may have been my fault, but see if you resonate with how my vacations panned out.

Day 1:  Winding Down- My mind was still thinking about what I left undone at work and whether others were doing what needed to be done in my absence.

Day 2:  Winding Down-  See Day 1

Day 3-5:  Rest

Day 6:  Revving Up- I began thinking about the pile of work waiting for me as a result of my time away.

Day 7:  Revving Up- See Day 6 (but sometimes worse.)  I may check email and voicemail just to clean them out early.

As a result, I really only achieved 3 days of real rest – Days 3-5.

My Answer:  Two Week Vacations

Watch what happened when I doubled my vacation from 7 to 14 days.

Day 1-2:  Winding Down

Day 3-12:  Rest

Day 13-14:  Revving Up

By scheduling a two week vacation, I went from 3 days of rest to 10 days!  I more than tripled my rest by doubling my time away!

I always came back from these two weeks away in a new frame of mind.  I was more available for my family while away, and I was better at work when I got back.

If you are reading this and you think you are too important to be gone from work for 14 days, I challenge that thought.

You May Be Wrong or You May Be Right.

You may be wrong- because you have put yourself on too high a pedestal.  When I finally took 14 straight days off, I came back to a team that ran just fine without me.  Some hardly noticed I was gone.

You may be right- because you have made yourself the center of your team.  Leaders make themselves the center of their team by forcing all decision to go through them.  If that leader goes away for 14 days, then the team may very well grind to a halt.

If that is your situation, you may want to refer to these previous posts:

The Indispensible Leader:  Oxymoronic Leadership Yarn #6

To Lead A Low Maintenance Team You Must:  Surrender Self 

The Bottom Line:

Annually, American’s leave more unused vacation on the table than most other nationalities.  In other countries, people take 30 days at time or more to recharge.  Yet, we wonder why we are all burned out.

Some of us believe we could not be gone for work for that extended period of time.  I used to think that.  Then I did it and realized I was not that important!

I challenge you to try this vacation plan.  It does not make you change who you are.  You can still take time to wind down.  You can still begin to feel pressure towards the end of vacation as well.

But, you will more than triple your rest by doubling your time off.  I promise- you, your family and your team will be happy you gave it a shot.

Question:

What is the longest vacation you have taken?