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?
How do you "power down" when you're not in the office?
Hi DeAnn,
ReplyDeleteI 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!
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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