This year my company is officially taking a break starting the weekend before Christmas through New Year’s Day. I haven’t had a break from work this long1My honeymoon last year was pretty darn close, but there is a big difference when I know I have a huge amount of work piled up to go back to. since graduating college, and I am thrilled by the concept.
Several of my coworkers are nervous about this change—we have customer support teams and we need to ensure our sites don’t suddenly break while everyone is gone—but I plan to revel in it in the intended fashion. I get to enjoy time with family and friends without distraction, without needing to burn additional PTO, and come back refreshed with an eagerness to get work done.
I’m not going to treat this like a miniature sabbatical and plan an ambitious number of projects to fill the time. While I’ll certainly manage to occupy myself with writing, reading, and exploring some ideas I’ve built up over time, the goal is not to prescribe any work in detail. A break should be exactly that, and in the last year I’ve learned to take my time away from daily work more seriously by increasing the divide between the two. I barely check my work email on my phone, and try to keep Slack out of mind once I’m done for the day. Neither of those slight changes has affected my work negatively, but has certainly improved my personal time.
A winter break will increase the dosage of that effect for a week, and I’m ready for it.
- 1My honeymoon last year was pretty darn close, but there is a big difference when I know I have a huge amount of work piled up to go back to.