Can Taking Your Work On Vacation Help Work Life Balance?
Read more about: Career, Family Time
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With a trip to Disney World on the horizon, I have been giving some thought to the need (okay, desire) to bring along my laptop and Blackberry so I can stay connected to work as well as my blogs. Earlier on in the planning for our vacation, my wife had commented that she would not be happy if I was spending our vacation connected to the Interweb.
While I agree with her, I do think there is some validity to having access to work. Is it possible that taking your work with you on vacation helps your work life balance?
Before you cast this idea off as rationale (an excuse) to stay connected to your Crackberry, as my wife likes to call it, give it some thought.
The last time that you took a vacation, what was waiting for you when you returned to the office?
If your work is anything like mine, you likely had a stack of issues on your desk that needed immediate attention. In an effort to dig your way out of the backlog of work, you end up working overtime - thus defeating the original intent of getting away for a vacation.
Wouldn’t it be better to spend 5 or 10 minutes of otherwise down time on your vacation dealing with some of those issues?
It sounds good to me.
Obviously, one needs to be careful as technology can hurt your work life balance just as easily as it can help. However, with proper moderation, you might find yourself returning from vacation knowing that there aren’t any fires waiting to be extinguished at the office.
So, while I plan to pack my laptop and Blackberry for my upcoming vacation, I will be limiting their usage such that it does not take away from our family time.
There will be no need to log in to write blog posts, as I am working on lining up guest authors. There will be no need to log in to moderate comments, as this time I am not running a contest during my vacation (I recommend avoiding that).
When the family has crashed for the night, I don’t see anything wrong with answering a few email messages. When the kids are riding Space Mountain for the 44th consecutive time and I am trying to hold down lunch, I don’t see anything wrong with returning a few phone calls.
What do you think - should you take work on vacation or let it pile up until you return?
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My Dad liked to say that vacation was really just adjusting your work load so you could take a few days off.. basically you still have to all of the same tasks you just cram them in before and after. I would agree that spending an hour or two during the week of vacation can save a lot of time and headache when you get back!
crossn81s last blog post..Eco-Gyms
Well, even if you don’t bring your laptop, you are still going to have to carry a phone, right? It’s not very practical to say that you can carry the phone but not use the part that the smartphone has but a regular phone doesn’t.
Kelvin Kaos last blog post..Jack Rabbit and the Beanstalk Review
I enjoy managing my time to include checking on e-mail while on vacation and I notice myself checking less as the vacation unfolds!
I like to set aside some time at the end of my vacation time to get ready to come back to the real world. A vacation from my vacation if you will.
Sometimes that requires adding an extra day or so to time off from work, or coming home a day or two early to allow enough time to catch back up with things so you’re not swamped when you get back in the office or wherever your work requires you to be.