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Vacations

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I know, you don't have time to take a vacation, you can't be away from the office, people who take vacations are looked down upon by senior management, etc.  Throw your excuses away!  I just came back from a ten day trip with my 14-month old Thomas-the-Train addicted toddler.  We took a 26-hour Amtrak trip each way and spent eight days with my parents.  Before I left I mentioned my hesitancy to a friend, "I will miss the office because I sincerely love my job" and received the best advice ever.  He told me he and his wife had a deal that he was more fun on vacation if he was plugged in.  He would spend a small amount of time each day tending to business and then focus entirely on family the rest of the day.  So I tried that.  It was hard the first couple of days to turn my brain off in between, I will admit it.  But I got to the point where I could leave my blackberry and only check it twice a day, respond to e-mails and ask if I could respond when I returned from vacation where appropriate.  This made a huge difference in both my family's enjoyment of my time with them, and my renewal.  If I had it to do all over again, I would (the train trip, too by the way).

How do you "power down" when you're not in the office?

Comments

  1. Nancy Settle-MurphyJanuary 28, 2013 at 3:47 PM

    Hi DeAnn,

    I do much the same thing on many of my vacations. I try to make my email and work time when my kids are still asleep, so I can minimize the interference of work in their waking hours. Now that my girls are almost 13 (tomorrow!), they don't mind time without Mom quite so much. I will say that I often bring work-related books to read for pleasure, as I have few opportunities to read them during usualy workweeks. Glad you had such a restorative trip!

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  2. DeAnn MaloneFebruary 4, 2013 at 8:18 PM

    Thank you Nancy and happy belated birthday to your girls! It helps when reading books you like counts as work! I actually didn't do any work reading while I was on vacation, that is still a little hard to fit in with a little one. I love doing that on the commute though. Thank goodness for my Nook!

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