Benefits of Taking a Vacation – Don’t Lose Your Time!!!

Planning 5 Mins Read

Did you know that there are benefits of taking a vacation? Working too hard? Stressing more than you would like? Need to take some time off? There are countless benefits of vacation that you should be aware of. It is critically important for your health and life to take time off!

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The Facts: Benefits of taking a Vacation

Numerous studies show that taking time off and mixing up your routine are important for maintaining a balanced and healthy life. Entrepreneur magazine published an article that claimed that taking time off was “the secret to increased productivity”. Healthnet.com shares that taking time away can reduce your risk for heart disease, depression, and stress. Despite the numerous benefits of vacation, if you’re like many Americans, “finding the time to take the time” for yourself can seem like a daunting task.

I’m with you. I know what burnout feels like. I also am fortunate enough to know what it feels like to be able to take a break, to de-stress, to recharge. I am lucky to have learned how to vacation, and I look forward to sharing that with you.

The Situation: Americans are not using all of their time off!

I recently happened upon a study called The State of American Vacation 2017. Project: Time Off, the author of the study, conducted a web-based survey and received over 7,000 responses American workers which they summarized in a great report available here.

While their findings indicated that 2016 showed some improvement over the previous couple of years in terms of the number of vacation days used (16.8 days used on average in 2016 vs 16.2 days used in 2015), the finding that surprised me most of all was that most of their respondents (some 54%) forfeited some portion of their vacation time!

This finding has real consequences. At a macro-level, this means that tens of billions of dollars in employee benefits are being left on the table. But at the more personal level, this means that over half of the working population that are already over-worked and overly stressed are not able to experience the benefits of vacation and taking time away.

Explore the benefits of vacation! Take the time you have each year to reduce stress and make memories that will grow sweeter over time!

The benefits of taking a vacation

The benefits of a vacation are many. For starters, you get to take a break from your daily routine. You can see new things, reconnect with family and friends, engage in an activity that you enjoy but don’t normally make time to do, breathe without having to worry about keeping a schedule, take time to learn and experience something new and different, and the list goes on.

Taking time off can also be a contributor to your overall happiness. I’ve been reading the special edition of Time Magazine called The Science of Emotions. On a list of tips that increase happiness, the number one reason that is given is to “remember whence you came”. This tip encourages the reader to “land mine” their home with photos and sentimental items that enable you to “remember that time…” with fondness.

Specifically, this refers to the power of nostalgia that accompanies experiences that you have (alone or with loved ones) that are outside of your normal routine. This is one of the main reasons that I love making memories in the National Parks and memorializing the visits that I’ve made to a park with a cancellation stamp. I have a permanent reminder of the date and place and a bundle of memories that made up that experience.

Why give up your time when there are so many benefits of vacation?

The 2017 Vacation Deprivation study released last month by travel company Expedia.com reinforces these findings. They cite the leading three reasons that their respondents gave for not using all of their vacation time as follows:

Budget
Saving vacation time for a longer vacation
Not being able to get away from work (… and we haven’t even introduced the reality that in this increasingly connected world, disconnecting from work while on vacation can be a near impossibility for some!)

It can also be increasingly difficult to take time off as you have more responsibilities on the job. For example, leading a team that relies on you for direction can make finding time for vacation nearly impossible.

What can we do about it?

So, how can we make sure that we are not a part of the majority of folks that give up even one iota of the great benefits that taking a vacation can provide? One key, according to Project: Time Off, is planning. Planning your vacation time increases the likelihood that you will actually take it (we outline our approach to planning your time off in our article on planning your time off). It also sends a signal to others to expect that you will not be around for that period of time, and to make plans to ensure that your time off is neither disruptive nor disrupted.

In the next couple of weeks, we will walk through some of our personal tips and tools that we use when planning our vacation time. These tips will outline, step-by-step, our approach to allocating vacation time throughout the year and some considerations leading up to your time off that will enable you to stick to your plan.

We want to know: have you used all of your vacation time this year? Why or why not? Leave your answer below in the comments section!

Author Britney

Britney is a world citizen, park enthusiast and lover of personal development. She shares tips and experiences that she and her husband, Jason, have had as they visit the 400+ U.S. National Park Units.

2 Comments

Jason Ward 7 years ago Reply
I agree, it’s so important to take your vacation days.
- Britney Post Author 7 years ago Reply
  Yes, and I neglected to mention that the average American worker has less paid time off than the typical worker in other developed nations. The fact that we have less time off accompanied with the reality that people are forfeiting their time (and having trouble disconnecting when they do take time off) is a real problem. Life is too short to work so much (in my opinion)!