Life moves fast. We’re constantly on the go and it is always a steady hustle and bustle. We as a society are busy to the point of it gets stressful to keep firing on all cylinders. One thing that is neglected often is the importance of having time to take off from our busy plates and take the time to recalibrate and rest.

As someone who is a self professed workaholic, i am an advocate of taking some time for a vacation or even a personal day to just unwind from being always “on”. There many benefits to being able to take some time for yourself especially for your career. Taking a personal day/vacation time is important for a healthy work life balance. Once you take some time off from what you have focused so much of your time and energy on you’ll find yourself psychologically refreshed , improved focus, overall better balance between work and life. You will also notice that you’ll have time to catch up on things you might not have had time for when you didn’t before and even time to enjoy things you normally don’t such as a hobby or time with loved ones. You don’t need to have a two week retreat to tahiti necessarily (though if you want to do that I say go for it!). Even if you take a personal day per month or a leave for specific purposes like our friends in the uk. You will be able to find a better balance and it will help you in your longevity and satisfaction in your career.

The workforce is changing and according to a study the work day has lengthened and people are taking less breaks making it harder to find balance. Did you know in 2018 768 million vacation days were left unused? That is a lot of unused pto that is lost if it’s not rolled over or cashed out. Some occupations lack paid time off which forces workers to miss pay if they are not present. We know making money is important but we are human and we have other obligations outside of our career such as family, friends, hobbies and interest and our own sanity. Our constantly bustling culture is making us lose our sense of self and lose sight of things we enjoy. If left unchecked there are consequences from our health, relationships and overall career satisfaction and performance (burnout, health issues, poor performance etc)

Taking time off is an often neglected part of our busybody culture. We need to place more emphasis on taking time to step away to refocus and recalibrate for the sake of longevity and satisfaction in terms of one’s career. For those that do not offer pto i encourage a way to find a way to make them happen and for those that do not take a personal day or vacation to take one. It will do wonders for you. Until the next time my friends excelsior!