You are reading the FRACAT Blog Archive (also known as "FRACAT 1.0") for all posts prior to October 29th, 2007.
How To Strategically Plan Your Vacation Time for Less Stress, Greater Productivity, and Gloating Rights
Let me ask you a question about this week. Did you see July 4th in the middle of this week and think to yourself, “Self - We could go on a 9 day vacation and only have to take 4 days off from work!”?
I know a lot of people have done just that. Well, here’s my newsflash for you:
Congratulations! You’re now a month behind and many dollars poorer.
What’s more, if you had thought more strategically about your vacation, you could be way ahead of your colleagues, have a ton of work done, and saved a bundle of money on your vacation. All at the same time!
Don’t believe me? Read on.
HOW TO GET A MONTH BEHIND IN A FLASH
Anyone that took the whole July 4th week off is now a full month behind. Here’s how that happened:
The Week Before July 4th: Peddling like crazy to get all of the most urgent stuff finished before you go on vacation. Any work that came in this week, unless it was from the president of the company, immediately went into the “After I’m Back” pile. 1 Week of Work Lost
The Week of July 4th: You’re gone. In fact, you probably left late Friday and won’t be back until late Sunday, 9 days later. You’d better be having the best vacation ever. 2 Weeks of Work Lost
The Week After July 4th: You’re back, but not really. You’re still catching up with everything at home and so dog-tired that you’re coasting through work. Most of your time at work is spent split between trying not to feel so weary, telling your July 4th Vacation Story, listening to everyone else’s, and trying to get back to zero e-mails in your Inbox.
Meanwhile, work piles up more. You’re not all that motivated, anyway, because most of the upper management took this week off, too. 3 Weeks of Work Lost
The Week After That: You’re firing on all cylindars this week. Everyone is back and working. Unfortunately, what you’re working on is all of the non-urgent stuff from before the week of July 4th that has now aged for a month and is suddenly urgent, if not exactly important.
However, the new work continues to flow in. One Month of Work Lost
You’ll start in on that month of work next week. And you’ll probably spend a good deal of overtime and/or bringing work home to get caught up.
Good luck.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR VACATION MORE STRATEGICALLY
It doesn’t have to be that way, however. If you plan your vacation strategically, you can be way ahead when you return from vacation.
Let’s look at a better way to plan vacations:
- Don’t Take the Typical Vacation Week (TVW) Off - That week where everyone is going to be gone? Don’t take that week off. In fact, make sure your boss is clear that you’ll be at work that week (minus the one day that is the actual holiday).
You might have to tell him several times as he’s thinking about his vacation, too.
- Get A Ton Done While Everyone Else is Gone - This is the beauty part of the plan. Most everyone is out of the office. There are no meetings, no concalls, no waves of e-mail, and nobody to distract you.
This is what I like to call, “The Perfect Productivity Storm”. You can now get completely caught up on all the work you have to get done. And, with no new work coming in this week, you won’t have new piles replacing the old piles that you’re completing. You can even clean out your e-mail and neaten up your desk. By Friday, you’ll be looking for things to do.
And don’t worry about the items that you need to delegate or work with others on. We’re going to label those to take care of those next week.
In other words, you will have completely cleaned off your desk.
- Spend The Week After the TVW Preparing To Leave - Now, everyone is coming back from their vacations all sunburned, worn down to a nub, glad to be away from the family, and ready to tell all about their vacation. They probably even have pictures to show you.
You, on the other hand, are going to use all of this “non-work for them” time to e-mail, phone call, and meet in person with the people who you need to collaborate with. They aren’t doing anything anyway, so they’re glad to sit and talk with you about the next steps on something you’re delegating to them or a project that you updated / completed while they were gone.
It’s so easy to talk with people this week because they’re not really ready for work yet. And you’re going to take advantage of that.
- Take Cheap Vacation - It’s now two weeks after the TVW and all of the vacation areas have hit a lull. They are desperate for people and you’ve arranged “off season” rates because they’re virtually empty.
You’re going to enjoy your vacation without overcrowding, overpricing, or overstressing. You’re going to get great service because there are very few other people around to take care of.
Ahhhh-this is the life.
- Come Back On Friday Night - Unlike your coworkers, you’re going to come back on Friday night. That gives you the weekend to unpack, unwind, and take a breath or two before you get back into work.
You’ll actually be relaxed when you get up Monday morning. Moreso because you know that you don’t have a mountain of work waiting for you.
- Walk Into Work Refreshed and Not Behind - You walk into work on Monday morning with a nice, fresh tan (everyone else has faded back to “Office Worker White” by now), relaxed, and ready to work.
You also notice that you’re at the same point everyone else is. They’ve spent your vacation week (”The Week After That” above) trying to get caught up and they’re just now getting around to recent work.
You didn’t miss a thing. So, you walk into the office with very little new work on your desk. In fact, you’re probably still ahead of a lot of people in the office.
- Gloat (Optional) - Obviously, gloating is an ugly trait. However, there are those in the office who are rather annoying most of the year who need a little gloating in order to be put in their place.
You can choose to rise above this base impulse as well. It’s up to you.
Which of these sounds better to you? Is it worth taking one more vacation day to have a calm, relaxed, inexpensive vacation experience instead of an crazy, harried, expensive one?
Here’s to planning your next vacation strategically! I’d toast you with a tropical drink in a pineapple shell, but I’m working this week…
Enjoy the Search!
-Dan
Photo by: sco
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