The AD Way: Work Life Balance

The AD Way: Work-Life Balance

July 6, 2020

Welcome to week #32 of The AD Way!

MAINTAIN A HEALTHY WORK-LIFE BALANCE.
Take care of yourself at work and at home. Stay happier, healthier, and more productive by balancing your time between work, community, family life, emotional/spiritual well-being, and physical fitness.

There are several points in the above paragraph that we ignore at our peril. On the other hand, when we simply make a little effort to follow them, our lives become richer and better. In this week’s message I discuss one of these: vacations.

With the virus circulating there are understandable reasons to be careful, even reluctant to participate in many of the most common vacations. Some of the places we want to go, or things we want to do, may be unsafe or legally restricted.

And so, some people are naturally thinking about “putting off” their vacations until a “better time” and/or not taking their personal time off.

If you are one of those people, I wish you no offense. I have only your own well-being at heart in this message.

And my message is simply this: Please take your vacation!

You need a break.

You do.

I know I do.

In fact, I think we all need a break.

Tell me I’m lying.

Don’t have any place to go? I know. And that sucks. But that doesn’t matter. When you need a break, you’ve got to take a break. Your health and sanity, as well as the well-being of all the people around you, depends upon it. It really does.

So, put your pencil down. Turn off your computer. Call your boss. Tell her you’re taking the day, the week, whatever. If she gives you a hard time, ask her to call me.

But you say, “There’s nothing to do on a vacation these days!”

Maybe so. But that doesn’t matter, either. What matters about vacations isn’t what you do on them, it’s what you don’t do on them. You don’t work on them.

No email. No Zoom. No meetings. No calls.

Do I need to remind you how much better you feel after you’ve unplugged for a while?

You stay up late. You sleep in. You make something. You do nothing.

Do I need to remind you how pleasant life can be when you don’t have to answer to anyone or keep a schedule?

So, go ahead.

Call it your staycation, daycation or vacation. Call it whatever you want.

But you need it. And it’s time to get to it.

Bill