Things I did not do on while on vacation

Workout

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Check Email

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Work

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Look at the News

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Write

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Workout 〰️ Check Email 〰️ Work 〰️ Look at the News 〰️ Write 〰️

Things I did do while on vacation:

Swim

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Hike

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Scuba Dive

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Suntan

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Shop

〰️

Eat!

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Long Walks

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Historical Site Visits

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Spend time with Family & Friends

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Swim 〰️ Hike 〰️ Scuba Dive 〰️ Suntan 〰️ Shop 〰️ Eat! 〰️ Long Walks 〰️ Historical Site Visits 〰️ Spend time with Family & Friends 〰️

I recently got back from a 17-day vacation to Greece. I’ve always been good about actually taking time off but I haven’t taken this much time off since early 2019. Two weeks (or more) is an ideal vacation because it gives you the space to actually disconnect. Taking a long weekend? Hardly different from a normal weekend. Taking a week? That’s longer, but not necessarily long enough to make sure someone covers for you at work, so you risk coming back to more work than when you left. 2 weeks, however, means you must confirm that your normal day-to-day life is somehow taken care of while you’re away. Planning for this coverage can sometimes sound like more work, but it ensures that you can actually relax on your time off.

Vacation comes from the Latin word ‘vacare’ which means ‘be unoccupied’. Most of us take this to mean our houses are unoccupied, as we travel during our vacations. But I believe a vacation is simply a time where your mind can be unoccupied by your usual life.

Traveling is useful in this sense because it forces us to focus on something abnormal. We focus on the logistics of travel, sightseeing, or ordering unique foods. It can also sometimes push us into survival mode which allows us to escape our usual sense of routine. But this departure from daily life can be achieved in other ways - by exploring nature, reading new books, or meeting new people.

This type of rest is vital to our well-being. Constant work and routine gradually eat away at us. They grind at our ability to recognize ourselves outside of our tasks and to experience gratitude for what we have. They skew our views of our own lives towards the negative because we don’t experience anything else to give us perspective. It’s easy to narrow in on the details of everyday life, so we need an opportunity to step back every once in a while.

Americans are especially bad at taking breaks but that is largely because our institutions do not encourage them. We are applauded for working until we collapse and our paid leave policies leave much to be desired. In contrast, Europeans are almost famous for how well they take time off. They have generous time off policies and a seemingly omnipresent culture of encouraging vacations. However, short of moving to Europe, it is extremely important to use what breaks we do have to truly rest and recover.

The pandemic has made vacations all the more valuable. We were stuck in monotony with no escape, and also no real rest since we were constantly stressed about the state of the world. Even as regulations regarding the pandemic have eased, the crushing weight of capitalism is ever present, along with a whole slew of troubling decisions and inactions by our government. Experiencing all of that constantly is exhausting. We deserve to take a break, to experience new things again, to have a brief respite from our world at large.

As such, I’ve taken a leaf out of the European handbook and tried to incorporate their thinking as much as possible during my time away - This is my own personal checklist for how to allow myself some rest -

Europeans do not apologize for their time off and they certainly don’t work during it. When you send your OOO notification, it should sound something like this - ‘Hi! Thank you for reaching out. I will be OOO from x/x/xxx to y/y/yyy with NO access to email. For urgent matters, reach out to x’ - I do not allow any wiggle room with my time off. I am OFF.
I make sure I’ve delegated all my tasks, created reference documentation, and communicated with everyone in advance about my time away. There should be no surprises.
Then I turn it all off. I don’t look at my emails, my social media apps, or anything that I normally consume and respond to during normal days. I turn off notifications for these apps as well to ensure I have no reason to look at them.
Then I plan something NEW! Whether that’s traveling to a new place, picking up a new book, or trying a new activity, I know I must get my brain out of the monotony. I usually opt for traveling to a new place with some new activities thrown in during the trip.
I keep focusing on those new experiences for my entire break! Even if it ends up being an active trip (hiking, climbing, etc.) I feel refreshed because it’s a break from my usual activities.

I like to do big overseas trips with a lot of things on the itinerary, but I know others prefer a more relaxed pace to their vacations. Whatever you decide to do, the only requirement is that you be ‘unoccupied’ from your daily life. There are still two months left of summer so good luck!

How to Take Time Off Like A European