If you’re an HR or L&D director or in a leadership role, the summer holidays can feel more like a logistical puzzle than a break, especially if you’re also juggling the school holidays and childcare.
While you encourage your team to recharge, you’re quietly holding the fort and maybe still answering emails from a sun lounger…. sound familiar?
What you do in your role sends a powerful message to others throughout the organisation. You often shape the permission for others. So taking a proper break may actually be the best work move you ever made, if you’re trying to shape the culture more in that direction.
Getting a quality break isn’t selfish, it’s essential for you and the business.
You need to rest, recharge and reset – just like everyone else. You are human, just like everyone else. So don’t just take your holidays, but make sure everyone knows that you’re off and won’t be checking in. They can contact you if it’s an emergency, but they’re probably going to do that anyway.
Recently, someone in my contacts sent me more emails whilst they were on holiday than they had in the last few months. That says a lot.
You can role model how important it is to rest, reset and recharge for what’s next when you return. We come back fresher and have more energy when we’ve actually had a break from work.
Let me share some simple game changers for me, which have enabled me to be more present with my family on our break and not think about work whilst I was away. I returned with renewed focus and relish as I’ve missed my work whilst I’ve been away.
When I come back, I tend to get those ideas in the shower or on our dog walks, because I’m more in flow and am well rested. Why don’t you give them a try?
1. Plan for your break well in advance – book time in your calendar to get meetings done ahead of time, have a clear day to take care of whatever else happens between now and time to set your ‘out of office’. This is real life – this is work. Schedule a day for it and don’t plan a heavy week, if possible, just before your break, but sometimes it just does happen that way. Control what you can. Clear your desk and tidy up. Enjoy setting that warm out of office message that models recharging.
2. Log out of social media, including LinkedIn – this puts a log-in layer of safety between you and your phone to break the habit (and it is addictive) to check on these Apps multiple times a day. Push notifications on email are off on my phone always but consider that or even deleting your email App for work email, if you usually can’t resist checking. Consider which WhatsApp chats to mute or leave for the duration of your break. You’ll thank me afterwards.
3. Have a cut off time – I aim to have a cut off time to stop work on my final day before holidays. Working from home most of the time, it’s far too easy for me to work late sometimes when workload or demands require it. I make a decision at aimed cut off time whether to finish or adjust the deadline once only. If I haven’t completed everything by the aiming point, I decide if completing another task will make the difference between switching off or not. Better to overrun by an hour at home now for example and be able to switch off for the entire holiday! It’s a judgement time for me – but the difference is that I’m focused on what’s best for me switching off, rather than what someone else needs. I’ve found it very helpful and usually empowering for me to stop now, rather than work on.
Even helicopters benefit from a switch off and back on again!
If the aircraft ‘computer says no’ on startup and things aren’t quite right, it often helps to switch off and back on again. Only on the ground though – I don’t recommend trying this in the air!
The kind of rest we need doesn’t come from a change of scenery alone. It comes from genuinely switching off. I don’t read work related books on holiday anymore; I don’t listen to work related podcasts on holiday anymore either.
The FOCUS technique we use for managing Anxiety or Panic Attacks is very useful here – focus on something else! Learn about the culture, food or geography where you’re visiting, maybe the history of the place and the people. Learn a little bit of their language or about the wine or food they produce in the area. Choose what suits you.
Many of us find that rather than switching off our busy brain, it works better to switch our attention to something else, which leads to us switching off from work.
A change is as good as a rest they say – try it.
Brain training is part of how we recommend proactively supporting yourself to be less stressed and feel more psychologically safe also. Also good for reducing the risk of dementia and related conditions.
Trying some new games on your phone could be a way to keeping your active brain occupied so as you don’t feel bored, if the guidebook or maps or history for the area isn’t enough. I challenge you NOT to find a game you like on the free New York Times Games App.
I love having a playlist ready for holidays which gives me the vibe I want to switch onto what I’m going to be doing or related to where I’m travelling to. A ski week in Austria with friends has a very different vibe to a summer break with the family… I enjoy creating these and then listening to them. Either way, when I’m away, I won’t be listening to the work playlist I have in there too to help me focus and concentrate.
We also enjoy listening to an audiobook together on holiday, on the journey and at relaxed moments of our holiday. It’s fun before we travel trying to find a new book that we’ll both enjoy together. Sometimes it gets quite competitive. Detective stories or spy novels often do the trick. How could you try something like this, either with your kids or partner?
Final Thought
Pack your journal so that you can enjoy slow mornings or evenings perhaps writing down what you’re grateful for, what achievements you’ve had so far this year and what brought you joy or other positive emotions during your day. Maybe even where you’d like to go next… always great to have the next thing to aim for and look forward to.
Wishing you a real break,
Andy
