time-off | Behavior Matters!

Tag: time-off

Taking some time to recharge

I feel that it is important that we take time for ourselves to recharge.  When I say that, I mean more than just finding the ten minutes a day to have some quiet time or even an hour a day to exercise (although both of these things help).

I mean that we are able to fully disengage from our main line of work for a week.

I just did this – I took a vacation!

Yes, I checked in on e-mail a few times (and even posted here), but for the most part, I took the time off and enjoyed my family, relaxed, forgot about real life and absolutely enjoyed myself.

I recommend this to everyone.

I think it also:

  • Recharges us – coming back from vacation, I feel much more motivated to do work.  It feels new again.
  • Refocuses us – time off allows us to refocus our energies.  I think that it provides a perspective that allows us to better identify the important tasks that we need to do.  It helps us prioritize!
  • Enlarges us – we come back with new experiences that help us look at things differently and I would say more creatively.  We tend to grow in different ways while we are on vacation.  This gives us a broader
  • Encourages us – this time for ourselves makes us realize that work is an important part of who and what we are.  I tend to miss it when on vacation (or at least parts of it).
  • Reminds us – of the reason that we work – both the intrinsic aspects that make us appreciate the work we do as well as the extrinsic aspects that provide us the means to take a vacation.  It makes you realize that there is more to life than just work – but how important work is to our life.
  • Inspires us – I had the opportunity to spend a week with one of the nicest, most thoughtful, most resilient  people I’ve ever had the opportunity to  meet.  His life story and his attitude on life inspired me.  We get the opportunity when we take time off to be inspired by any number of different elements.
  • Connects us – to new people, new places, new ideas.  We come back from our time away with more connections that can serve us well in the upcoming days, months, years…

So make sure that you take time off to recharge yourself.  Make sure that you don’t shortchange your vacation, or miss it, or do too much work over it.  Remember…the time off is important to our overall motivation and well being!

I’m sure there are many more positive aspects to taking time off.  Please let us know your thoughts on this.

Refresh

It seems as though in this day and age, everyone is busy – and I mean busy.   We go from project to the next or possibly have them going on at the same time.   The need to get things done faster, with less resources, and with higher impact is making us feel like there are not enough hours in the day or days in the week.  We are becoming a nation that is stressed out and on the edge of burnout.   I know that I am.

What is necessary is to be able to take some time to slow down and relax.  To refresh…

Of course that is harder than it appears.  We are no longer able to take a day off and play golf or go to the cabin without still being hooked in.  Our cell phones and laptops, while wonderful tools, keep us plugged in no matter were we go.  We cannot escape the e-mail or phone call  that requires our attention NOW!!  Even if we do escape to some backwater place where we don’t get cell phone coverage or there is no wi-fi, we often have the stress of multiple projects and deadlines looming over us that keep us up at night.  None of this is good or healthy.

So what do we do?  How can we refresh ourselves?’

What we need is some serious down time.  Some time for ourselves to let our minds and body’s calm down and rejuvenate.  This is not a vacation (vacations often only add in more stress and pressure).  This is a time to slow down and allow ourselves an opportunity to vegetate.  To feel like we did in Junior High over the summer when the most pressure we had was to make sure we got home in time for dinner.  It is time that many people might call “wasted” time because it is unproductive – but I feel that it is time that is needed to repair and invigorate so that we can be productive.

I can attest that this isn’t easy and that I’ve never actually fully achieved it – but I’m going to try.  Here is my plan…

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