The Smartest Way to Take a Vacation

We recently looked at ways to maximize your vacation happiness, and The Wall Street Journal recently wrote a similar piece, with some additional advice:

1. Take shorter, more frequent vacations
Holidays work like sleep. You need regular recovery from work in order to stay healthy in the long run. Research shows that during a vacation, health and well-being increase quite rapidly, often just two days into a vacation. However, it peaks by the eighth day before gradually declining. So it may be that eight or nine days away is the ideal length of time to fully gain the benefits of a holiday.

2. Have autonomy
Experts say having autonomy while on vacation also increases its benefits. Try to take control of the course of the day. For example, don’t let the alarm clock tell you when to get up, wake up naturally. Take steps so you will be in control of your time, deciding which activities you want to do or not.

RELATED STORY: How to Maximize Your Vacation Happiness

3. Mentally detach from the working world
For some people not checking email at all can make a vacation more stressful. If that’s the case for you, designate a time in the morning and in the evening to check email. Turning off the phone helps to share experiences with the people you’re with. And put down the camera occasionally; you sometimes miss the moment when you take a picture.

4. Ease back into work
Experts say easing back into work can help extend the post-vacation bliss. A 2010 study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, which surveyed 131 teachers in Germany, found avoiding excessive work following vacation and getting leisure time in the evenings prolonged the benefits of the vacation.

Curated Article and Photo Credit from The Wall Street Journal