Ask yourself these questions:
- Have you gone more than six months without a vacation?
- When you schedule a vacation, is your excitement diminished by a lingering feeling of guilt?
- Do you fear that your absence will lead to a decrease in results?
- Do you fear being seen as a less committed leader because you are taking time away from your work?
- Do you dread your inevitable return because you know it means an overfilled e-mail inbox and line of people waiting to speak to you?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you are compromising your own productivity. When we are chronically busy, our fatigued brains become robotic in the scheduling and completion of tasks. We lose the ability to be present. Our efficiency decreases and our error rate increases. We become impatient and short with others. We lose sight of our vision and myopically operate within day-to-day tasks. In short, in our quest to do more, we actually accomplish less.
Vacation allows our brains to rejuvenate. As we dig our toes into the cool, wet sand, we become reconnected with our senses. As we look at our spouse and really see them, we remember why we fell in love. As we experience new sights, foods and cultures, our sense of adventure returns. As we decompress, our motivation renews. As we think less and feel more, our creative mind reengages, allowing us to see new and different ways of doing things. As we bask in the glow of doing nothing, the idea of doing something becomes appealing and exciting again.
When we return to work, we reap the advantages of our renewed brain. We are more efficient and creative with problem solving. We are better able to be empathetic and patient with our team. We have renewed passion for our vision and the energy to take the steps to realize it. Therefore, if you are feeling burnt out and haven’t scheduled a vacation in the past six months, it may be time to pull out your calendar and make time to take one. Your productivity depends on it.