In praise of vacation days
Travel, a staycation, Sunday Funday are all well known ways to improve your well being. That’s the fun of summer, whether to stay at home and vacation or whether to journey out to create memories with family and friends. There’s research galore that establishes better productivity and creativity as a result of time away. Here’s a round up of ways to incorporate time well spent on vacation days.
Choose your best vacation
Adam Grant talks about the way we vacation. “To have a relaxing vacation, detach from work. To have an energizing vacation, seek out a mastery experience. We find flow through embracing new challenges and building new skills.” Does one of these types of vacation appeal to you and spur you on to make a plan?
For our family, each summer we take a family vacation with our grand kids. It’s been near and far, from beaches to cities. It’s a memory that is priceless for all of us. We talk about the travel and fun there. What’s most precious is the time together just having fun together!
Being budget friendly with staycations
Staying within your budget is always an important consideration. There’s ways to make travel easier and cheaper by traveling by car or staying at home and sight seeing your city.
When I visit friends, often it’s an opportunity for us to get to know our own city as a tourist does. Giving ourselves the time to see the local sights, we appreciate our location even more!
Did you know about these tourist destinations in Houston?
- Port of Houston boat tours
- Summer concerts at Discovery Green
- Waterwall picnic area
Learn more about your city and summer cheap thrills.
Make Sunday your day to relax and make the day about your self care
We need regular rejuvenation and reset. Have at least once a week to do what we love, whether it’s sit, exercise, cook, crochet or other fun activities. Sundays can be your day or another day of the week that fits your schedule. Whatever day you choose, make it your day by doing less, scheduling less and relaxing more.
This summer I made time for each of these ways to reset! We took a family vacation and we stayed home for the July 4th holiday. Each of these resets helped me to do my best work with clients and enjoy precious memories with family. Choose ways to make your vacation be a reset for you.
More on organizing and productivity here!
Simply reading this makes me smile – I love vacation days! I always try to keep Sunday free. During a regular week, I allow myself to unplug and not think about work. Sometimes I have to “make” myself not think about work, but it is worth the effort! In terms of vacation, it is so hard to arrive home on a Sunday evening from vacation, and then if anything goes wrong with your travel, you might have a problem with work on Monday. The Waterwall picnic area in Houston sounds very appealing – maybe someday:)
One of the things I love most about summer are the vacation time with family and friends. Sometimes this takes the form of a long weekend and other times it’s close to a week. Mixed with those times are the staycation days. We love exploring our area both NYC and other parts of the Hudson Valley. A favorite thing to do is just have a weekend with no specific plans, but where we just get to do things on the spur of the moment which could include taking a walk along the river, enjoying an afternoon nap, or going out to our favorite BBQ spot. All of these things bring balance, joy, connection, and rejuvenation into our lives.
@ Linda – All of these sound very restful and rejuvenating. There’s a lot to be said for spontaneity when your life is busy!
@Seana – there’s so much research that supports our unplugging!