When my son was born, I was still working under a company. I was entitled to a two weeks paternity leave but since I felt that my work needed me, I took only one week and when my boss found out, she was very angry. She is a smart lady and she knows the importance of vacations, rests and paternity leaves. So she asked me to go back. “The company will not fall just because you are not around,” she told me.
Over the last few weeks though, I have come to realize that it is not only me who felt guilty about taking a rest. There are so many people who feel bad about going for vacations. They want to work and slave all year round without taking a rest. And this is not good. Science has it that well rested employees are more productive, creative and better at problem solving skills. They are more likely to have a better attitude towards work as compared to those who clock extra hours and want nothing to do with rest and vacations.
In this post, I have come up with the importance of vacations as well as how you can avoid feeling guilty about taking a rest.
Importance of vacationing
Better sleep
When you take a vacation, you are moving away from your work and so you can sleep in without any feelings of guilt or anything. So you sleep better and have your mind resting.
Connect with people and nature
When you take a vacation, you will interact with people and go to new places where you will see new things and enjoy yourself. The break is great for your body and mind.
Stress reduction
Vacationing reduces your stress since you do not have to think of work all through the entire holidaying mood.
Improved productivity
For you to be very productive, you need better focus and a relaxed mind otherwise you will have everything jumbled up and nothing done really well. When you take a vacation, you allow your mind to relax and focus on other things so that when you get back to your work station, you are more productive than before
How to not feel guilty about vacationing
Delegate roles
You do not have to do all things. You can delegate some of the roles to your juniors. All they need is training and mentorship so that they are aware of what is expected of them. Once you delegate the work, you will tend to feel better that no work has stopped and you can go ahead to enjoy your holiday period.
Know that you are dispensible
Nobody is indispensable. You can fall sick and the company will still stand without you. So make sure that you take a holiday because you do not have to always be there for things to happen. Your employees or colleagues can still learn your tasks and end up doing them better than you. So cut yourself some slack and holiday when you can.
Automate tasks that can be automated
For some tasks in the office that require technology, they can be automated. For example, my work involves marketing and I am doing it more in social media where there are targeted audiences looking for my skillsets. During the holidays, I will make sure to set up automatic facebook adverts using Connectio which I have found to be very great in placing the facebook ads and targeting them to a certain audience so that they can then contact me or place orders for my services.
Connectio helps you to not only automate your facebook ads but also to optimize them so that they reach only a select audience that you are sure are interested in your services or products.
Plan the getaway
If you really feel guilty about holidaying, Forbes say that you need to plan your going away by making sure that you have finished all the projects assigned to you and inform your boss that you have no more pending projects. You need to inform them in advance and also fill in any vacation forms that you might be required to sign so that they have written requests for your getting away.
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