1
00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:06,400
Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

2
00:00:09,119 --> 00:00:13,720
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

3
00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:19,960
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to handle work on vacation. Theoretically,

4
00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:23,400
Speaker 1: this is a straightforward matter. If you're an employee at

5
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,400
Speaker 1: an organization, you are entitled to your paid time off.

6
00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:30,440
Speaker 1: When you take it, you should be off set your

7
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,640
Speaker 1: out of office email and trade off coverage with a

8
00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:36,159
Speaker 1: colleague or two. Especially if you are flirting with burnout,

9
00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,640
Speaker 1: it is incredibly important to disconnect for a while and

10
00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:44,160
Speaker 1: experience some days without work stress. Trust me, your work

11
00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,159
Speaker 1: stress will still be there waiting for you when you

12
00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,600
Speaker 1: get back. So the point of a vacation is to

13
00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:52,400
Speaker 1: get yourself to a place where you are better able

14
00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:55,080
Speaker 1: to deal with it. But for many of us, the

15
00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:59,240
Speaker 1: question of working on vacation is more complicated. For instance,

16
00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:02,760
Speaker 1: maybe you work for yourself, Maybe you run a small business.

17
00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:05,640
Speaker 1: Maybe you're a partner in a firm and share ownership.

18
00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:08,520
Speaker 1: No one is making you work during your time off.

19
00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:11,759
Speaker 1: It's just that there are certain things you are responsible

20
00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,320
Speaker 1: for and you want to make sure that they keep happening.

21
00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,039
Speaker 1: It's also possible that you really like your job and

22
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,240
Speaker 1: some of the work doesn't actually seem like work, or

23
00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,640
Speaker 1: at least the categories are nebulous. I put myself in

24
00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:29,360
Speaker 1: this latter group. My main work consists of writing books,

25
00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:33,920
Speaker 1: giving speeches, and producing my podcasts, but I do various

26
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:36,319
Speaker 1: other things, such as write blog posts over at Laura

27
00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:39,920
Speaker 1: Vanderkam dot com to keep people interested in my ideas

28
00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:42,880
Speaker 1: and my work. If I'm on vacation, I might write

29
00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,080
Speaker 1: a blog post about being on vacation. For me, this

30
00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:48,760
Speaker 1: is work, but I think most people wouldn't consider writing

31
00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 1: a post about their vacation to be a professional activity.

32
00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,200
Speaker 1: In any case, For me, being able to do some

33
00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:59,560
Speaker 1: work on vacation means I can take more vacation. In

34
00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:02,800
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, I spent six weeks traveling somewhere for non

35
00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,560
Speaker 1: work related reasons. But during each of those weeks, I

36
00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:10,400
Speaker 1: averaged about five hours of work. If I'd held myself

37
00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:13,280
Speaker 1: to zero hours of work, I would never have taken

38
00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,440
Speaker 1: those six weeks off. So if this sounds like you,

39
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,120
Speaker 1: how can you handle work on vacation without feeling like

40
00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:24,680
Speaker 1: you're still well working all the time. For me, it

41
00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:27,760
Speaker 1: works best to designate a time for work. So when

42
00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:29,799
Speaker 1: my family spent a week at the beach. Last summer,

43
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,200
Speaker 1: the kids and I came to an agreement that we

44
00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:34,000
Speaker 1: would go to the beach to gather in the morning

45
00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:37,440
Speaker 1: and come home for lunch. I'd work from about one

46
00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,120
Speaker 1: to three pm while they watched movies, read or played

47
00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,919
Speaker 1: video games. Then we can go back to the beach

48
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:44,959
Speaker 1: or go to a playground or whatever else in the

49
00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:47,959
Speaker 1: late afternoon before dinner. This turned out to be a

50
00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:51,160
Speaker 1: good rhythm for giving everyone some downtime. I just used

51
00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,680
Speaker 1: my downtime to work. Midday is good if you're staying

52
00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:58,720
Speaker 1: in one place, but if you're traveling around and sight seeing,

53
00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:00,880
Speaker 1: first thing in the morning might be a better option.

54
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:03,639
Speaker 1: Get up an hour before the rest of your family

55
00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,160
Speaker 1: and deal with whatever you need to during this time.

56
00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:11,519
Speaker 1: And then this is key, do not constantly be available

57
00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,600
Speaker 1: the rest of the time. By forcing yourself to stick

58
00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:17,320
Speaker 1: with a short window whatever you've determined that to be,

59
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,120
Speaker 1: you prioritize what must happen, even if you do some

60
00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,560
Speaker 1: work on vacation. One of the upsides of vacation is

61
00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,520
Speaker 1: giving your brain space to just flit around to other things.

62
00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:31,640
Speaker 1: I find that letting it play around often leads me

63
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,080
Speaker 1: to come up with good ideas that I wouldn't have

64
00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:36,440
Speaker 1: come up with if I was on email all day long.

65
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:40,080
Speaker 1: If you do work on vacation, how do you fit

66
00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:42,640
Speaker 1: it in without driving your fellow vacation or is crazy?

67
00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,560
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about it at Before Breakfast podcast

68
00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:51,240
Speaker 1: at iHeart Media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

69
00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,200
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

70
00:03:54,200 --> 00:04:03,760
Speaker 1: our time. M Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

71
00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,680
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

72
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:11,000
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

73
00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:16,560
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast

74
00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:19,680
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email

75
00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,599
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com.

76
00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,120
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

77
00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:28,839
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

78
00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:37,720
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For

79
00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:40,880
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart

80
00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,320
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

81
00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:45,040
Speaker 1: favorite shows.