Productivity Recharge – National Plan for Vacation Day 2020

Did you miss out on National Plan for Vacation Day back on January 28? If so, have no fear! It’s not too late to plan for vacation.

This is a time management blog, so you might be wondering, “What does vacation have to do with productivity?” The answer is: EVERYTHING!

Time Management and Vacation

There seems to be a common belief that if you work longer hours, you’ll get more done. This is a myth. Neuroscience tells us that the brain cannot work at maximum capacity for more than a few hours at a time. Once your brain hits its personal limit, anything else you attempt to do is processed at a lower efficiency – and possibly lower effectiveness – rate. In other words, what you finish in 12 hours as you slog along could quite conceivably be finished in nine hours if you were to take recharge breaks.

If you could get the same amount of work done at the same quality or better, which would you prefer: working for 12 hours or working for 9?

The answer is a no-brainer, right? Yet so many people drag their bodies and minds needlessly through longer work days.

Your Brain Needs a Vacation!

Neuroscience also tells us that our minds need not only short breaks throughout the day but also extended breaks throughout the year. Your mind, body, and soul need time to recharge. You might feel completely recharged after a long three-week vacation or even a break as short as a one-day staycation.

Yet in 2018, 55% of Americans left vacation time on the table. In 2019, Americans chose to not use 768 million vacation days. Yes, you read that correctly. 768 MILLION!

Why would people do that? Fear of losing job security. Fear of losing out on opportunities. Fear of things going wrong while they’re gone. Fear of the mountain of work that they’ll return to.

If you’re tired of living in fear, and you want to experience some rest and relaxation, it’s time to kick those fears to the curb! It’s time to live from a perspective of abundance instead of scarcity. It’s time to get streamlined at work so you have systems and processes in place, which make it easier to leave work behind.

It’s time for you to plan for vacation!

If you missed all the advice floating around the internet of things on National Plan for Vacation Day, or if you’re not sure how to plan to escape from the office, or if you have some great ideas but aren’t quite sure how to implement them, be sure to check out The Great Escape: A Vacation Planner for Busy People Who Want to Take a Real Break from Work and Life for tips on how to leave work calmly (instead of in a frenzied rush) and return to work completely relaxed.

Take that first step today and plan for vacation. You need it. You deserve it!