My wife just forwarded me an email from her organization’s Human Resources department that reads, “Don’t forget to take your vacation!” You’d think that things like this don’t require reminders, but Canadians aren’t great at having or taking vacation days. As a country, we rank third last in the world in terms of the number of statutory holidays. And as individuals we don’t take the vacation days that we’re allotted, often citing “too much work” or “not wanting to fall behind” as the reasons. I’m heading on vacation this Friday for about 10 days – here are three reasons that you should take vacation right now, too.
Unplugging leads to productivity
Research everywhere – like, here and here and here – argues that human beings need downtime in order to reach our productive potential. By design, vacations should achieve a total disconnect from emails, projects and meetings. And unplugging from work isn’t just for your benefit, but for your employees’ potential, too. When I go on vacation and really unplug it means being in nature and actively finding places that make connecting to the digital world (and my emails) almost impossible. For friends of mine, unplugging means becoming hyper-connected in a different community, like a big city or a weekend binge of Civilizations IV or Starcraft! But unplugging isn’t justfor you. A Vice President with whom I work unplugs for his own wellbeing and he also doesn’t read or respond to emails because doing so undermines the folks to whom he gave his authority while he is away. I love this value adding reason for unplugging – we’ve all received that email from a senior leader or important client and started crafting an awesome response only to have our boss, supposedly on holidays, execute what’s supposed to be our work. When it happens to me I feel more lack of trust than I do someone trying to help.
Time is the new money
According to Richard Branson, time is the new money and you should be spending it on vacation: “Companies are realizing that when you give people back their time, they will make you more money. It seems illogical, but it’s really quite intuitive.” Here’s another great point from Inc’s Chuck Blakeman:
Why give up on a vacation system that’s been in place for 170-plus years? Because it was a bad idea then, and with a workforce that did not grow up in the shadow of the Industrial Age, it’s an even worse idea today. Almost no one under 40 can relate to a time-based system that makes no sense in a results-based world.
Reject the nonsense! What this means for you is that you should take vacation right now because spending time with your family and friends is what you will remember during your last days on Earth. Biographies of palliative care nurses and consistently show that people – in their last days – reflect on the time that they wished they’d spent with their loved ones. Nobody reflects fondly on the time that they built seven financial models when their quota for the day was three. Or the time that they missed their daughter’s championship soccer game for a meeting about calibrating employees’ performances within the company’s fiscal parameters. What and who really matter should be where (or with whom) you spend your time. And vacations are when you should be making the most of your time.
Creativity requires diversity
Staycations are fine and also necessary – sometimes the outcome of purchasing a home in a place like Vancouver is that you can only afford to vacation in the beautiful international tourist destination of … VANCOUVER!!! However or wherever you vacation, be sure to make it a difference experience. When we change our environment or change how we interact with where we live it changes how our brain works. For example, when I lived in the tourist Mecca of Victoria, British Columbia, I knew that I wouldn’t be there forever – because I was 25, not 35 with kids or 75 and unable to safely drive (no offense, noble citizens of Victoria!) – so I made sure to live like I was on vacation from time to time. I went whale watching, explored Miniature World, and even cultivated my floral interests by visiting Butchart Gardens. I learned a lot about the community and about myself, too. And, most importantly, I was focused on things that were way, way more important than the stuff that I was doing for paid employment. So, whatever you do for holidays make sure that it is, first, different from what you did last time and, second, very different from what you do for work. Your brain will thank you for it!