Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: This week, we'll be talking about vacations, strategies for making
Speaker 1: the most of your time off and for handling work
Speaker 1: during and afterwards. Today's tip, though, is a more fundamental
Speaker 1: one that you should take a vacation. They don't have
Speaker 1: to be expensive, and they don't have to be long,
Speaker 1: but getting outside of your usual routine for a bit
Speaker 1: can make life more memorable and make time feel richer
Speaker 1: and fuller. Plus, in the long run, time off can
Speaker 1: make you more productive during your time on. Every year,
Speaker 1: various folks published statistics on how many vacation days people
Speaker 1: leave on the table. There are lots of reasons for this.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people have one bank of paid time off, and
Speaker 1: if you have young kids, you might anticipate needing these
Speaker 1: says sick days or to go to kid events. Planning
Speaker 1: vacations can take time and effort, and when you're juggling
Speaker 1: work in family schedules, it can feel like just one
Speaker 1: more thing to do. Sometimes organizations make it challenging to
Speaker 1: take vacation days. If everyone's stressed and overworked, it's hard
Speaker 1: to ask colleagues to cover for us, and sometimes there's
Speaker 1: something more psychological going on. If we take vacations, our
Speaker 1: organizations will have to function in our absence, which means
Speaker 1: that these organizations can function in our absence in an
Speaker 1: uncertain world. That can feel worrisome to acknowledge. But if
Speaker 1: any organization is dependent on one person, there's a problem.
Speaker 1: People can get seriously sick, or get an extended jury
Speaker 1: duty or something like that, and everyone will be forced
Speaker 1: to cope. Best to figure out that people can cope
Speaker 1: in a more positive situation. Plus, it's important to stand
Speaker 1: up for ourselves to be honest. Work will take whatever
Speaker 1: you give it. You have to decide how much to give,
Speaker 1: because no one else is going to look out for
Speaker 1: you in that way. One of my favorite scenes from
Speaker 1: Cheryl Sandberg's book Leaned In came from when she was
Speaker 1: working in a consulting office many years ago. Her office
Speaker 1: manager told her that people left all the time because
Speaker 1: they were burned out, and he could understand people not
Speaker 1: liking the stress, the travel, or the hours, but what
Speaker 1: bothered him is that everyone who left had unused vacation days.
Speaker 1: He asked people to exert more control over their lives.
Speaker 1: No one's going to give you permission to look out
Speaker 1: for yourself. Sometimes you just need to be bold, or
Speaker 1: at least think of it this way. If your organization
Speaker 1: has gone to the trouble of hiring you and training you,
Speaker 1: they'd probably prefer to keep you. Hiring people takes a
Speaker 1: lot of work. Replacing you is going to be time
Speaker 1: consuming and expensive. If the choice is you taking your
Speaker 1: vacation days or you quitting, they'd probably prefer you to
Speaker 1: take the vacation. If it's the expense or hassle of planning,
Speaker 1: then get creative. Expenses can be kept in check by
Speaker 1: using the time to visit friends or family members in
Speaker 1: interesting places. For families, renting homes on verbo or through
Speaker 1: Airbnb is often an economical choice. It means you can
Speaker 1: eat simple breakfasts or lunches at the house rather than
Speaker 1: in restaurants. If you don't like the planning, maybe delegate
Speaker 1: this to a family member who does like to plan.
Speaker 1: Or package tours can take the work out of this
Speaker 1: for you. You sign up and then do whatever they
Speaker 1: tell you to do. But the goal is to get
Speaker 1: out of your normal routine for something every few months.
Speaker 1: A lot of adult life becomes very similar day to day.
Speaker 1: When we say where did the time go, what we
Speaker 1: often mean is I don't remember where the time went,
Speaker 1: and that's because we didn't do anything memorable. Vacations, by
Speaker 1: their nature, bring new experiences, and these experiences create memories.
Speaker 1: When we have more memories, we feel like time is
Speaker 1: richer and more vast. Plus Like machines, we all need
Speaker 1: time for scheduled maintenance. Downtime can rejuvenate us, or at
Speaker 1: least differences can energize us. And yes, I say this
Speaker 1: as a mother of four young children. My vacations tend
Speaker 1: not to be terribly relaxing. I'm still doing that kind
Speaker 1: of work, but being in a different place puts me
Speaker 1: in a different mindset. Indeed, many of my book ideas
Speaker 1: have come to me when I've put myself somewhere other
Speaker 1: than my normal life. One early morning in July, for instance,
Speaker 1: I was in Bar Harbor Main and I went for
Speaker 1: a run. It was so pleasant and I had absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing that I had to do next. All of a
Speaker 1: sudden a phrase popped into my brain. I was off
Speaker 1: the clock. Maybe I should write a book about that concept.
Speaker 1: So I did, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: thought about being off the clock without actually being off
Speaker 1: the clock. I'm guessing that if you take some time
Speaker 1: away from your routine, you'll come up with great ideas too,
Speaker 1: or you'll have insights into how to shape your future
Speaker 1: career or ways you'd like to spend your time in
Speaker 1: the future. Those are all very productive outcomes. So if
Speaker 1: you've got a vacation coming up in the next few months,
Speaker 1: great celebrate that fact and spend some time today looking
Speaker 1: forward to it. If not, get out the calendar and
Speaker 1: start dreaming. Challenge yourself to take at least a long weekend.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you won't consider it wasted time. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E
Speaker 1: the number four then Breakfast p O D. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at
Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. I look
Speaker 1: forward to Staying in Touch Before Breakfast is a production
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