You’re Probably Sabotaging Your Vacation Before You Even Leave
The vacation you’ve dreamed about for the past two years is so close you can almost taste the beach margarita and feel the breeze on your sun-kissed face. But before you go, you need to finish up that white paper, finish the PowerPoint presentation for the week you get back, confirm the pet sitter, cancel the summer camp you accidentally scheduled for the kids and hope for a refund (good luck with that), write a few performance reviews, do the laundry, pack . . . and the list goes on.
Does this scenario sound familiar? If so, then you are sabotaging your vacation before you pack your suitcase.
Research shows that “vacation anticipation”--those weeks and perhaps even months of daydreaming about your upcoming adventure (Will the sand be as white as the pictures? Will the view from the room be as good as the pictures?)--is just as important as the vacation itself.
In fact, a 2010 study revealed that travelers experience their highest level of happiness in the days and weeks leading up to their trip–more than during the trip itself.. Losing out on vacation anticipation because of your ever-expanding to-do list could mean missing out on a critical part of the restorative value of vacation.
I know, because I do this every darn time.
Sabotaging a vacation begins long before the actual trip
My vacation countdown usually starts about 6-8 weeks before my planned trip with a mix of excitement and panic. I am both eagerly anticipating the adventures I’ve planned and stressing about whether I have everything I need. This part of the countdown typically involves way too many Amazon orders for things that I *might* need.
Two weeks before departure, my vacation anticipation has turned to dread because I feel like I will never be able to finish everything I need to and I am running around like the proverbial headless chicken.
Not exactly the best way to begin a vacation.
Small steps keep vacation anticipation alive and well
How can you keep your vacation anticipation alive and reap the full benefit of your getaway? The bad news is that overachievers constantly struggle against ever-escalating expectations, and a vacation is no exception. The good news is that a few small steps can shift your mindset and change your pre-vacation behavior.
Set realistic pre-vacation expectations.
After a vacation, I love coming home to a clean house. So, on top of every other logistical item I’d juggle before vacation, I added the burden of tidying up the house, even though it was going to lie empty for two weeks.
In terms of work, I have also caught myself trying to finish up things that are due after I get back just so that I am not stressed when I return. Stressing myself out now about how I could potentially stress myself out in the future makes no sense, and it is up to me to temper my expectations.
Now, instead of imaging the ideal world in which my post-vacation calendar is completely empty, I focus on things I need to get done prior to vacation.
2. Accept the grace of your coworkers.
If you are a hard-working team member during the rest of the year, your co-workers will realize that you have not intentionally left tasks undone in your absence. If something should happen to slip through the cracks, it will be dealt with.
Many years ago, when I was on vacation in Paris, my family of five got bumped from our flight home and had to stay an extra day. The problem was that I was supposed to lead an important workshop the following day (why I scheduled a workshop for the day I returned from vacation is another question entirely). There was NOTHING I could do.
And you know what? My colleagues ran a great workshop in my absence, and I would do the same for them if the tables were turned. The bottom line is that no one expects you to be a superhero (and if they do, then you might want to think about finding a new job).
3. If you add something to your pre-vacation to-do list, take something away.
I fall into the “one more thing” trap, adding “one more thing” to my to-do list because it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But all those little things add up, and soon you’ve lost a day that you hadn’t planned on.
Don’t just write a to-do list, manage it. Your to-do list should not be a fantasy of everything that you would do in a perfect world; it should be a way to prioritize essential tasks. Be ruthless and prune it as needed.
4. Let go of the what ifs.
It is important to accept that you cannot be fully prepared for every eventuality. Too often I’ve embraced the Girl Scott motto, “Be prepared,” as my call to arms, imagining various unlikely scenarios and trying to prepare for them.
This mindset leads to a never ending spiral of tasks that turn vacations into odysseys. Now, when I am tempted to over prepare, I remind myself that my airline ticket, my credit card, and my personal identification is enough to solve pretty much any travel-related problem.
The next time you feel vacation anticipation giving way to dread, ask yourself, “How many times in my life am I going to be able to say that I am going to _________ next week?” Alter your pre-vacation routine and reset your expectations so that you can truly savor vacation anticipation and squeeze the most out of your limited vacation days.
