In the spirit of being brief, these are the cliff notes to the 30 Minute podcast.
Americans do not take two-week vacations. We have a long list of reasons why we only take one-week breaks from our real life. Organizational culture, the volume of work, and landslides of email compounded by our addiction to busyness keep us tied to one-week vacations.
In this podcast, I make the case for why we need to take two-week vacations and the restorative benefits for our relationships, our work, and ultimately, ourselves.
Helpful Tips on How to Successfully Take a Two-Week Vacation
I provide specific tips and suggestions for how to go work with your boss, setup your out-of-office auto reply on email, and other helpful nuggets that I’ve discovered.
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The Top 5 Reasons Americans Do Not Take Two-Week Vacations
- Organizational culture doesn’t support it;
- The volume of work and email;
- We are addicted to work, busyness, motion, and action;
- The problem with vacation is that we go with ourselves (and so do our problems);
- The bar is way too high. We can’t afford a two-week vacation at the five-star resort.
The Business Case For Why We Need Two-Week Vacations
- We need to stop and become idle in order to become restored;
- We need to rediscover our own natural rhythms;
- Eat. Drink. Be Merry;
- IOU’s: We are relationally in debt and we need to make deposits in our family.
Tips and Suggestions For Making Your Exit
- Start your out of office email reply one day before leaving.
- Speak with your boss and ask for his/her support for you to NOT CHECK EMAIL at all.
- Turn off your email account on your iPhone.
- Upon return from your fourteen day restorative bonanza, make phone calls to three to five key people and ask these questions, “What do I need to know about? Where do I need to focus my attention?”
- Be gracious to yourself. Give yourself a few days to get your legs under you again.