Is it time for a holiday?

Welcome to The Inbox Coach nudge, a small nudge to help you stay on track with your career development. For the final nudge of the month I want to share the benefits of taking a proper break from work.

“The real work of an expedition begins when you return.”

Louise Arner Boyd

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It’s a bank holiday here in the UK and as it is my birthday tomorrow, and I start my new job next Monday, I’ve decided to take the rest of this week as a holiday. Having a holiday from work, even if it is just to stay at home and sort your life admin out, is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your career.

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Holiday!

When you have a holiday from work, I think it is even more important to be able to switch off. As I talked about last week, a break can help you to get perspective on your situation. If you are constantly immersed in your work even when you are at home or on holiday, how do you ever really take that step back and assess if things are working for you?

It is interesting to notice what happens when you go away. Do you suddenly feel exhausted now that you have stopped because you have been working so hard? Do you completely forget about work and dread going back? Do you just have a good time while you are away and come back feeling refreshed and ready to get stuck back in?

How you feel when you are on a break can tell you a lot about how fulfilled you feel in your career, and you probably have some time to reflect on what that might be telling you. When you get caught up in the day to day it’s easy to ignore how you really feel about work but having a break and getting that perspective can help you to appreciate what you have got or if you need to, start to make a plan to make a change.

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Being firm with your boundaries

So how do you make going on holiday a work free experience? I think there are two key things to consider. What you need to do before you go away and how you are going to behave once you are on holiday. I love being organised, so thinking ahead is a skill I’ve mastered. If I’m going away, I consider what might happen while I am off work and put plans in place to deal with those scenarios so that no one needs to call me. That might look like pausing a project I’m working on or handing over to a colleague. It takes some trust, but the reward of not being interrupted is wonderful.?

The second thing I do is to have very firm boundaries about not doing work when I’m away. When I’m at work, I try to be 100% focused on the task at hand and not let what is going on in my life get in the way of me showing up and doing a good job. I then do the same when I go on holiday. I log off from my computer, make sure all my notifications to my phone are switched off and I forget about work until it is time to go back.?

I hate the feeling of work interrupting my life. If I am spending time with friends and family, I want to be fully present for those moments. Even if I am by myself, I want to be able to give my full attention to what I am doing, especially if I am on holiday. Turning off notifications was a game changer for me, no little red symbol making me worry about what I was missing, but I also stop myself if I think that I want to check.

If you have a boss who won’t leave you alone then the right to disconnect might be coming into law, but for the rest of the time how much are you complicit in your own inability to switch off?

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“The real work of an expedition begins when you return.” – Louise Arner Boyd

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Louise Arner Boyd was an American explorer who ventured to Greenland and the Arctic during the 1920s and beyond. She carried out huge amounts of research on her trips and her work is still used by climate change scientists today. I’m not sure where this quote comes from, but it is probably about the nature of the work that she would do when she returned from a trip with all her facts and figures and notes and making sense of them.

I felt that this sentiment was true of what can happen when you go on holiday in relation to your career. ?That time away from the day to day can give you the headspace to think about what you want, what you might be lacking and how you might make changes to your work. Switching off from work, taking time off to relax and recharge can result in new thinking about what you want from your career and might prompt you to make some changes when you get home.

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I am following my own advice this week and taking a very well-earned rest before I start my new job next week. I hope that you have enjoyed this series on taking a break from work and that you have been able to carve out moments of calm and rest for yourself.

As this is the last email of the month, I’m sharing my Kofi link . The Inbox Coach is free to read, ?so that everyone has access to the tools they need to feel good at work, and it is my hope that these emails help you to take charge of your career. By supporting me on Kofi with a virtual drink you are helping me to support even more people to create careers they love. Thank you!

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I’ll be back next week with new of my new job and a brand-new topic for The Inbox Coach

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See you then

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Laura

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P.S You can access all previous editions of The Inbox Coach and get exclusive subscriber offers when you sign up?here