Imagine having a day all to yourself where you can just rest and re-energize after working so hard. Specifically a day where you have no responsibilities and answer to nobody. At this point, you are probably saying yeah right, good luck with that. We are in the age of 24/7 technology in which we can always be reached, and everything seems to be a priority and we must respond right away. How often do you check your cell phone within a given day? How many minutes can you put your phone aside without checking your email or looking at alerts.

Take Your Vacation Time to Rest and Re-energize

You are putting out what seems like endless fires at work. If you are not at work, perhaps you continue to think about work. You contemplate how to get your project back on track. Perhaps some of your colleagues may not be pulling their weight or are an impediment to meeting your objectives.

A friend of mine goes on a cruise for 10 days every year. He loves the entire experience of being on a ship, having all his meals taken care of, all the choices you have with food and entertainment, the sightseeing. Most importantly, he loves the chance to completely disconnect, the fact that phone service can be nonexistent. He tells his boss he will not have phone service during his trip. It’s a change for him to rest and recharge, an opportunity to get away from everything on spend some of those hard-earned dollars doing what he loves. However you don’t have to go on a cruise if you take a vacation however you should consider taking the time to doing something for yourself, whatever that something may be.

Less Productivity

There’s evidence to show that working 24/7 can make you less productive and in some instances stifle your creativity. You are on automatic pilot trying to juggle a number of priorities. You are being asked to do more with less and are putting in a lot of hours trying to get it all done. This leaves little time to come up with some creative solutions that could save you a lot of time and effort. To illustrate, let’s think about how we’re at home sometimes and an idea just comes to us. The light bulb goes off and you come up with a solution to a problem you have been struggling with for weeks. It’s a very common occurrence. In other words, when you have a chance to just rest and re-energize, you can be creative again.

Avoid Filling Up Your Day Off with Chores

Make a concerted effort to take some time for yourself without a laundry list of chores to complete. Tell yourself, I work hard and deserve to rest and re-energize.

Planning to take some time off should be a priority. It will help you be more productivity, more creative and most of all happier overall. On the other hand, that lack of work life balance will affect your performance and level of satisfaction.