Taking a vacation and spending some of your time traveling around with your friends and loved ones can be a great way for you to unwind for the normal stresses of your day-to-day life. However, if you aren’t able to be completely “off the clock” while on your vacation, the benefits of taking time off work can’t completely be felt or appreciated for you. But in order for you to return home and back to work refreshed after this period away, you’ve got to find a way to keep work at work and not on your vacation with you. To help you accomplish this, here are three ways you can protect your vacation time from work worries.
Set The Right Expectations and Boundaries
Before you leave for your vacation, Jeanne Croteau, a contributor to Forbes.com, recommends that you speak to your boss and coworkers about the expectation and boundaries that you’ll have in place while you’re away. As part of this, state when you’ll be able to check messages and emails and when you’ll be unreachable. Also, explain when you should be contacted and when something can and should wait for your return. Once you have these times or dates laid out, you’ll feel much more comfortable unplugging during all other times.
Don’t Make Any Plans To Get Ahead
While there’s likely always more work that can be getting done, it’s important that for your mental, physical, and emotional health that you give yourself a break every once in a while, which is exactly what a vacation should do. And although the temptation to get some work in while you can may be in the back of your mind, Rebecca Healy, a contributor to U.S. News and World Report, recommends that you just make it your plan not to do any work while on vacation. If some type of emergency pops up and you have to deal with it, face that problem then. But the last thing you want to do is be trying to return emails while in transit, which not only takes away from your vacation but can also be very dangerous if you’re on the phone while driving and potentially causing a car accident.
Keep Your Laptop Packed Away
As was mentioned above, there might be some type of work emergency that needs to be taken care of as quickly as possible and simply can’t wait for you to return to work. Because of scenarios like this, it’s likely a good idea for you to bring your laptop on vacation with you. However, Amy Elisa Jackson, a contributor to Glassdoor.com, recommends that you keep your laptop packed away as much as you can. This will keep you from checking in on things when you should be spending your time enjoying your vacation.
If you need some help learning how to protect your vacation time from the worries of work, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you do just that.