Vacations

As most of you probably already knew or guessed, I was away on vacation last week. As usual I returned not so much refreshed and rejuvenated, but exhausted. To be certain I did have a lot of fun and got to see friends and family that I have not seen in quite a while … it was a ‘good’ vacation. So, why do I feel like I need a vacation after my vacation?

Simple really, I over planned. Since I get so little vacation time I try to do ‘everything’ at once. The result is either I don’t get everything I want to do done (unfulfilled expectations … the number one cause of stress), or I rush and hurry everything not enjoying it nearly as much as I should (Time management worries … IE Stress). Usually it ends up being some combination of both. Once you add in the additional stress and expectations of visiting family, well, in the end a ‘fun’ vacation usually ends up draining energy more than it recharges a person.

I also know that I’m not alone in this feeling; I hear it all the time from friends and co-workers that come back from vacation, and I’d be willing to bet that if most of them analyzed it they would come to much the same realization. In general, Americans at least, tend to put ‘fun’ over ‘rest and relaxation’ or to put it another way … we just try to do too much with the limited time we have.

I tend to believe that this comes from a couple different factors … first, as a society, we tend to value productivity over almost everything. Don’t get me wrong, productivity is certainly important, but more than a few people have taken it above and beyond … to the point that they feel guilty taking a vacation, or, when on vacation, they feel ‘guilty’ if they aren’t doing something … rather than sit back and read a book, or just relax they feel like they have to go ‘do something’. Second is the fact that Americans, on average, get the least amount of vacation time of any country … as a result people try to cram more ‘fun’ into their limited time off, they try to do everything that they don’t have time to do normally.

On the one hand many employers could help themselves and their employees by realizing that workers with 4-6 weeks vacation a year are usually healthier, happier, and more productive overall than those with 3 or less weeks of vacation a year. On the other hand people (myself included) need to remember that it is important to rest and relax on a vacation, plan a few days of ‘nothing’ this will not only give you time to recharge, but it will also help with ‘over planning’ by giving you more flex time and maybe give you that time to really enjoy and savor the company of friends and/or family.