In Australia, collectively, we place a fair amount of importance on our summer holidays. Offices close down. Schools and childcare centres shut-down. Taking at least a few days of annual leave is mandatory for many. As the days of December tick by and temperatures rise, we count down the days as we head towards Christmas and the break that it beckons. Once the festivities are over relaxation, in a variety of guises, begins. Books, the beach, board games, cricket, tennis, fishing, festivals … summer traditions in Australia take many forms.
Whichever path you take, whether your holiday is a trip overseas, spending a week at the coast or staying home, the best bit is that it’s usually different to your ordinary. And, really, a holiday, is anything that is different to your ordinary.
Because changing up your regular routine is restorative.
For me, the part of my regular routine that I happily let go of during my holiday was rushing. I haven’t rushed to do anything or go anywhere. I didn’t rush to get the kids out the door. I didn’t rush to return phone calls or emails. I didn’t rush dinner or bedtime or anything. I meandered instead.
It wasn’t a choice I made consciously but after a week or so I noticed. And I realised that rushing isn’t so much a physical state of being as a mental one. It’s a headspace. And for me, it’s the single biggest difference between working and being on holidays.
In real life, at least a degree of rushing is often necessitated. To meet deadlines, to arrive at work on time, to get kids to school on time, to make phone calls in office hours, to arrive at the airport to make your flight, to get dinner on the table, to get to the gym between other engagements … there are endless reasons why we need to rush in our regular lives. Rushing provides us with the momentum to do what we need to do in the time we have.
But having given it some thought I am not convinced it’s always required. I think it’s one hat, or, more specifically, one headspace, that has a place but I don’t think it’s required at all times.
Late last year I was speaking to a woman who has co-founded a hugely successful business. She explained how they wanted employees in certain functions to spend the equivalent of a day a week working on strategy. It’s time designated for employees to take a big picture view of their jobs and the business: to consider betters ways to work, tackle problems that are popping up, to develop new ways to meet customer demands, to redesign functions in the business. When they first introduced the initiative staff were allowed to carve the time out in their week as they liked.
It soon became apparent though that it was difficult for staff to spend the morning fulfilling the operational aspects of their role and then effectively switch into strategic mode for a few hours in the afternoon. So they switched things up. They set up a roster so that employees have a full day a week to only be strategic. They can arrive at work with their big picture hat on and work in that mental space for the whole day. Apparently it’s allowed the staff and the initiative to flourish.
It resonated with me as the female entrepreneur explained it. Different aspects of our jobs – and our lives – require different mindsets and it is not necessarily easy to switch effortlessly between them.
To be sharp and switched on at work but then relaxed and calm at home. To be firm in one meeting and motivating in another. To be operational and reactionary for a few hours and then strategic in the afternoon. To be the boss at work but not at home. Or vice versa. Learning to pivot between the various aspects of our lives is a constant work in progress.
This year, in a bid to improve the way I juggle that process, I am determined to bring my holiday headspace with me more often. When the time is right I want to rush less and remember that rushing is a headspace I choose.
Did you have any epiphanies on your holiday? How are you feeling about being back at work?