Live longer, live better: five reasons to take a vacation

Ahh, June: school is out for the children, and the temperatures are climbing day by day. If you don’t have a vacation planned, now is the time to get started.

Today, we discuss the virtues of vacations.

Given a choice, would you rather spend your work-free days on a pleasant trip somewhere sunny and sandy, or in bed with the covers pulled over your head? I think most of us would prefer the trip out of state to a snotty tissue avalanche on the bed.

Here’s some good news: you do have a choice between these options. You have this choice every day. And if your hours off work are heaped together in a single pool, I know you’d rather be using the majority of them for “fun” time off rather than time spent sick and recuperating after bottoming out at work from burn out.

I know people who accumulate loads of vacation and sick days like it is some sort of perverse competition. Maybe they just really, really like their job. Perhaps they have a hard time justifying time spent away from the office. Or, they may suffer from a sense of guilt or overinvestment at work—“I can’t possibly step away from all of this.” Maybe they set store in squirreling away hours for a phantom emergency. Maybe they are scared they will lose their job for taking a few days off. Like finding a folded $20 bill in a winter coat pocket, I suppose it is also possible some just forgot they have all those days to spend.

Regardless of your reasons, if you are a vacation-day-saver, I want to offer you a wake-up call.

Many of these seem like good reasons to delay time away from work, but in most cases they put you at risk. Everyone needs to replenish their pitcher periodically or they’ll end up parched and empty. The best job in the world won’t feel very best if you’re depleted.

Vacations are a great way to practice wellness. Think of them as conferring some of the same benefits of regular trips to the dentist or doctor, minus the uncomfortable exam tables or paper gowns.

And there are many of us who do not have paid time off of work—if you are unemployed or self-employed or your job doesn’t afford you this benefit, this is a daily reality for you. That doesn’t mean you are exempt from vacations. In fact, it is probably more important that you pack your bags for a departure to somewhere. You will need to take an even more protective stance about your wellness than someone with a generous benefits package that affords regular time off.

I don’t care if you leave the city or state. For those of us on a limited budget, staycations are a popular choice. The added complexity with a staycation is in drawing boundaries in your day so that you do not lapse into a work routine or start doing all those little things around the house that you’ve been meaning to do when you found the time.

Part of the virtue of a vacation is satisfying your hunger for some novelty. With a little planning and interest, you can create an interesting and budget-friendly staycation. This is certainly true if you live in Austin—there’s more to do in this town than could be sampled by born-and-bred Austinites in a single lifetime. Amidst a busy work week, these opportunities make themselves invisible to us, cloaked by routine, obligations, errands, and to-do lists. Staycations invite us to discover the pleasures of town just beyond our own welcome mats.

For those of you looking to venture out of your city or state, some of you will find that active, busy vacations feel almost as stressful as a full week of work. You may prefer to nestle in a cabin in the woods or soak in the ambience of a peaceful, new locale an afternoon at a time. Others of you will tackle your vacations with an active, more aggressive campaign of sight-seeing, hiking, and traveling.

Some people center their vacations around food and wine, others around music and entertainment. Whatever your pleasure, please do it.

Please take a vacation.

If you’re still resisting this idea, ask yourself why and then read a couple more reasons to reconsider your stance:

1.) Money in the bank. If you take a vacation, you are putting money in the bank for your emotional wellbeing. Think of it as an investment in yourself.
2.) Use it or lose it. In many cases, there is a high end to the number of hours you can accumulate before you start donating vacation days and/or money back to your own company. Unless you feel like making a charitable donation to your workplace out of your own paycheck, use your hours. Some companies will pay you the difference if you leave a job with hours accumulated—but some won’t. Read the fine print and know your company’s policy on this.
3.) The best of 2011. Do you want your “Best of…” list for 2011 to be populated exclusively with reports, grants, or an impressive number of billable hours? What good is that if you don’t have some fun? Wouldn’t you like to have an album full of pictures of time spent with people you love? Will the items on this “Best of…” list make a good story five years from now?
4.) Sharpen yourself. If you must justify your vacation in the language of work, consider what it will do for your career and your attitude. Returning to work refreshed and renewed will add a nice boost to your productivity and your creativity—and these are good for business.
5.) Your longevity. Multiple studies show that people who take vacations regularly enjoy better physical and mental health than those who don’t.

Who doesn’t want to live longer and better?