Technology Detox and Vacation – Perfect Together!
I recently returned from a wonderful vacation and found this quite relevant article just in time for the Fourth of July, “How To Take A Relaxing Vacation Without Stressing About Work”. The author begins by discussing the fact that burnout is now a recognized syndrome by the World Health Organization (WHO), defined by the symptoms of exhaustion, energy depletion, and negativity resultant from chronic workplace stress. The most common solution to burnout, not surprisingly, is to take a break or a vacation! However, a 2018 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that vacations are not as stress free or stress reducing as we’d like to imagine. In fact almost one-third of those surveyed noted working on vacation more than anticipated or having blurred work/rejuvenation time boundaries, and one-fifth of those surveyed reported continued significant stress on vacation.
In reading this article, I found that I agree with several points. Clearly blurred work, personal life boundaries limit the positive benefits of taking a break. The author offers a number of helpful strategies to insure that you get the most out of your vacation possible. These include sharing plans with co-workers before you leave to insure needed tasks are completed in your absence, spending time outdoors as much as possible, being spontaneous and having a plan for work re-entry.
The recommendation that struck me most, in part because of what I witnessed on my own vacation, was doing away with “mindless checking.” While on vacation I observed adults and adolescents alike seemingly constantly checking their phones. “For what?” I wondered. “What exactly are they checking for?” The answer, I suppose, is it depends. Perhaps they were checking in response to the pings and buzzes of Facebook, Instagram and SnapChat, or reviewing (again) their Twitter feeds. Then again, maybe they were checking work emails or voicemails. Research has now shown that the biggest stressor to being always connected is not the possibility of a work related email or message but the mere persistent thought of that work. It is the thought that work related messages may come that is most stress inducing.This seemingly constant checking I observed had to negatively impact stress levels and reduce people’s ability to soak in the beauty all around them. The later is, for many, one of the purposes of a vacation or break yes? To me, this was further concerning when I thought of other articles I recently read, tying obsessional technology use to clear deterioration in mental and physical health among Millennials when compared to GenX. But, I’ll save that discussion for another post! For now, I would like to encourage you all to take a technology detox while on your summer break. Perhaps you’ll work for half an hour a day, putting your phone aside thereafter, or maybe you’ll take a planned day of no devices. However you do it, I encourage you to put the technology aside, refill your physical and emotional energy and really enjoy your time. You’ll be so glad you did.
Comments
Technology Detox and Vacation – Perfect Together! — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>