Tag Archives: vacation

On the importance of down/transition days during vacation


If you are going away on vacation from work, make sure you have some down/transition days at the start and end of it. At the end of vacation, having a day off between vacation and starting work will make it easier to begin your work day. Likewise at the start of your vacation, having an easy day after work but before travelling should make it less stressful and tiring for you.

I did not do this on a recent vacation I was on. I went from a busy week at work and home right into travelling for my vacation. I still went out after arriving at my destination and it was enjoyable, but I was also exhausted by the end of the evening. Likewise I arrived home on a Sunday evening and went to work the next morning. Again I managed it, but it was hard to shift from vacation mode to work mode. In both cases, a down day at the start and end of my vacation would have been good.

As well, have some down days in your vacation. It’s tempting to schedule non-stop activities for your whole time away. If you can manage it, fine. But try and have some low key days mixed in there. You may find your overall vacation more enjoyable that way. I did.

It’s tempting to sprint your way through from work to vacation and back to work. For short trips, that may be fine. For longer trip, pace yourself and give yourself permission to do low key days, especially at the beginning and end.

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Are you bad at taking vacations? If you are American, chances are you are


I am on vacation this week for a long overdue time off. In that regard, I am like many of my American counterparts. As this piece shows, Americans don’t get much vacation time. Worse, they are bad at taking it. As for why that is, it says Americans…

  • felt they couldn’t adequately disconnect from work while on vacation
  • thought they wouldn’t feel relaxed or connect with loved ones
  • anticipated negative outcomes, such as feeling stressed or having financial burdens.

As someone who has worked with many Americans, that all rings true.

There’s a joke on the Internet that Europeans will take off the whole summer for vacation, while Americans are available to take a business call during surgery. An exaggeration, but not that far off.

For more on this, see: U.S. vacation time is short and Americans don’t use it wisely.

Get some time off. You and the people you work with will benefit.

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Congrats! You have a day off! What should you do?


Well, there’s a lot of options, if you go through this list: What to Do With a Day Off – The New York Times. My take is you can either tackle those things you have been putting off (hello! Finances!) or you can literally vacate your normal life and take it easy. Either is good. Better yet: consider being productive this time off and extra lazy the next time.

Enjoy your day. You deserve it.

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The most relaxing vacation you can take is going nowhere

Good tips in this article on how to take a successful staycation. Key quote:

The key to a successful staycation, whatever you’re doing, is to just be. That’s not easy for people working in cultures intent on busyness. Yet it is a way we can reduce stress levels and return to work with more energy. “We shouldn’t associate relaxation with being away,” advises Quartz’s managing editor Kira Bindrim, who describes herself as an avid staycation advocate. “Reclaim the place you already chose to live!”

I think you can do staycations in a number of ways. Sometimes they are great ways to achieve a personal project. Other times they are good for exploring the city you live in. But if you want to have a relaxing staycation, check out that article.

Friday afternoon “vacation starting” music

I am starting mine. Two weeks. Two weeks needs not one but two classics from the 80s:

And

May you enjoy your holidays and vacation, whenever it occurs.

How to spend a day of your vacation/staycation in a Toronto neighborhood

One way to enjoy a staycation is to visit neighborhoods you normally don’t go to and treat them like you would any neighborhood in a city you are visiting. If you are from Toronto and think this is a good idea, then BlogTO has a number of pages devoted to what you can do in many of this city’s neighborhoods . Here’s a list of some of them I put together:

This list is also great if you are a tourist and want to see what the various neighborhoods of Toronto offer. Toronto has more great neighborhoods not on this list, ones you have likely heard of, like West / Queen West, the Beach/Beaches, and Harbourfront. Add some of these neighborhoods listed above to round out your trip to this city.