Clearing the Decks for Vacation

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Raz ("Roz") Mason, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

There’s an art to getting ready to go away. In the final weeks before your vacation, groundwork can be part of your rejuvenation. Lack of preparation can make your return more exhausting than if you hadn’t gone away. That’s the last thing we want! Here are some tips to ensure that warm glow of vacation starts before you go and lasts well after you return.

• Vacation planning can offer wonderful lessons in emotional maturity. Let’s start with an assertive rebuttal of the idea that you can do it all. You know – answer every email, get complete and irrefutable data for each report, finish off every project in super style. Please understand, part of flexing your vacation muscle involves sitting with your anxiety about work you’ve left behind or entrusted to others. Some of that work may even have to fall through the cracks. That’s OK! It needs to be OK if we’re to grow into a reasonable understanding of life’s limitations. We simply can’t do it all. Knowing that can free us from beating ourselves up, and can help us calmly request reasonable treatment from others. Understanding there are limits to what we can fit into a day – and, as strivers, we’re probably close to them – is key to navigating life’s messiness. If you’re someone who wrestles with this, congratulations on even choosing to go on vacation!
• Be honest about the things you’re most worried about and make a “Worst-Case Scenario Plan.” (If you’re not familiar with the field of business scenario planning – and its applications to life – books by Peter Schwartz, who pioneered the field, can be a good start.) First of all, how likely is the worst? Just spelling out your fears may set off your internal BS meter – showing you how you’ve exaggerated. In addition, seeing scenarios written down offers perspective. You can trigger your brain to offer up clever ideas of what you can do to prevent or respond to unpleasantness.
• Put in writing what you expect from your co-workers in your absence. Sit down with them and go through your expectations/hopes and any procedures, step by step. Do they have any questions – or even suggestions? This is a low-ego threat time to get feedback from them. Perhaps unsettling, but useful. (Remember – you can’t do it all – and this includes already having the best processes for everything you do.) Does writing it down seem overly formal and a waste of time? This document can be added to your position handbook, which you should be developing anyway. When you’re ready to move up in this or another organization, you want to help make the transition seamless for your replacement, right? Your position handbook can be a main fixture in your professional pride.
• Don’t let management’s lack of responsibility become your problem. Be specific about why your requests for additional coverage or postponement are reasonable, and document suspected outcomes if management doesn’t follow through with support. On a related note – it is UNREASONABLE to expect that you will sandwich a vacation in while maintaining your same workload. This fallacy presumes you have so much cushion built into your workday that you haven’t been working hard before now. If you don’t buy that lie, you’re left with this truth: If you’re already hard-charging, you can completely cancel out any benefit from your vacation by overworking both before you go and after you return. My mantra in this regard comes from a German managing chemist who, in critiquing our American work-till-you-drop ethos said, “It’s impossible to be creative on anything less than three weeks of vacation a year.” Your vacation is in your company’s best interest. It is reasonable to actually expect to take a break, rather than demand of yourself the worklife equivalent of erratic driving – speeding up, slowing down, speeding up. Don’t do it on the road or in the office.
• Start your vacation before you go by connecting to positive experiences you hope for. Set out some trip-specific items you won’t be using beforehand (sporting goods, travel clothes, vacation reading). Seeing your suitcase in the corner with a few items signals that fun is on the way. Make your packing list. This is eminently practical. A list ensures you capture wise promptings of your quiet mind, rather than expecting more from your scattered, last-minute mind than is sensible. I learn the joys of list-writing from my dad. I have happy memories of watching him (a lifelong mountain climber, where getting the packing list right has consequences!) prepare for camping trips and civilization-based outings. First he would start his handwritten packing list, often working at the kitchen counter. Then he would begin the gear pile in the living room. I choose computer-based lists, but the anticipation and satisfaction are the same.
• Get some specialized travel gear. Treat yourself to at least one item, such as a wrinkle-free shirt or dress, money belt, or high quality travel-sized cosmetics. Get yourself a guidebook. Scan it; read any parts that jump out at you. This is more about slowly developing a relationship with the place than making a complete study. On the digital side, once you know generally where you’re going, search for apps that amplify the sights – from specific museum tours to historical markers. Even in the computer age, having a paper-based resource is helpful for quick skimming (and adding sticky notes, folding down pages, and writing in the margins about places you’d like to explore). Also get yourself a large paper map so you can spatially orient yourself.
• And finally, read a story or listen to an audiobook set in the place you’re going. We humans respond instinctively to narrative. It’s probably a right-brained thing that also engages our hearts. By taking in a story (or two) about your destination, you’ll inevitably put yourself in your characters’ shoes. Then, when you get where you’re going, you’ll subtly feel like you’re already at home.

Remember, it’s never too early to plan your next or longed-for vacation. Intention drives creation. Don’t hesitate to imagine it, research it, relish it. In this way, your vacations can begin long before you go and last long after you return. Bon voyage!