Patrick Wright* discusses the different approaches to holidays that can either leave you refreshed and ready for work, or wrung out and exhausted.
When Samantha Moloney returned to work after her Christmas break this year, she noticed she was feeling more refreshed than usual.
She puts it down to taking an extra four days off.
“The first week at Christmas is always crazy.
You’re getting ready for Christmas Day, then it’s New Year’s Eve,” she says.
“The second week [for me] is just downtime.
“I found the extra days gave me the opportunity to completely unwind so when I went back to work, I was feeling much more refreshed than I normally do.”
If you’re feeling burnt out or exhausted at work, a holiday can help, but how long does a holiday need to be to help you rest and recover?
If a weeks-long holiday isn’t an option, how can you make the most of a short break?
Research has found that holidaying is associated with higher life satisfaction, better mood, fewer health complaints and reduced exhaustion.
However, these benefits are short-lived.
One widely-cited study by European researchers found that the health and wellbeing benefits peaked on the eighth day of a holiday and rapidly returned to normal in the first week of work.
However, these findings were based on a sample of only 58 people who had taken holidays for at least 14 days.
Divna Haslam, a clinical psychologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology, said some studies found that wellbeing peaks on day eight.
“Others have found more frequent shorter holidays are better, while still more found no relationship between wellbeing and holiday length,” Dr Haslam said.
She says it’s likely to be more helpful to have a mix of shorter and longer holidays throughout the year.
“Any full breaks from work are beneficial.
“Even short breaks … are associated with temporary increases in wellbeing and can have beneficial outcomes,” Dr Haslam said.
“Adding on to long weekends for four-day day breaks may be particularly beneficial [as] work does not have too much time to build up and impact return.”
When Jo Wintle went away on a trip to Europe recently, she had some wonderful experiences, but she didn’t come home relaxed.
“I was very fortunate to go overseas last year for three-and-a-half weeks,” she says.
“We were clocking 25,000-to-35,000 steps a day.
It was jam-packed with activities, which were amazing and really engaging, but it didn’t give me a lot of time for rest and recuperation.
“You sort of come back from a busy holiday like that and you feel exhausted.
“It’s like you need a post-holiday holiday to rest and recoup.”
Over the Christmas break, Ms Wintle took a different approach, spending time relaxing at her family caravan on the beach in Ocean Grove, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula.
It was a welcome opportunity to detach properly from her work as an organisational psychologist.
“We’d sleep in, we’d wake up and I’d laze about, then I’d go to the beach and have a swim,” she says.
“I had some wonderful downtime where I was able to rest my body and recoup my energy, and also give my mind a rest.”
Importantly, she spent three weeks away, which is just the right amount of time for her to properly unwind.
“It takes me about a week to wind down, then in that middle week I actually rest and recoup,” Ms Wintle says.
“In that third week, I start gearing up again to go back to work.”
If you want to come back from a holiday feeling rested, it’s also important to disconnect from work.
Ms Wintle, who works helping organisations deal with mental health and burnout, says there are four key things to keep in mind.
Time
“That’s just ensuring that we have enough time to actually rest.
That will be different for different people,” Ms Wintle says.
Psychological detachment from work
“This is your capacity to mentally disengage from your work and shift your thoughts to other activity,” she says.
“If you go away, but all you’re doing is thinking about work, you’re not resting.
“You’re not relaxing.”
To help switch off, Dr Haslam suggests avoiding emails and social media related to your work.
“If necessary, remove these apps from your phone,” she says.
Relaxation
“Make time for relaxation, where you’re really not doing anything, you’re resting,” Ms Wintle says.
“That might be sleeping, it might be swimming, it might be going for a restful walk.”
Control
“Make sure that you have some choice over the activities that you’re doing,” Ms Wintle says.
“Don’t be afraid to say no and protect that time.
“You’re the only one who can protect your relaxation time.”
While a holiday can help, Dr Haslam says it’s not going to be a solution to exhaustion and burnout.
“We know from scientific studies that although holidays are associated with rapid and dramatic improvements in mental health and wellbeing, we return to pre-holiday levels alarmingly quickly,” she says.
“It’s important that people consider holidays as only one facet of a broader approach to work-life balance.
“People should focus on a range of strategies that help promote wellbeing and balance all year around.
“We can’t expect a week of holiday to combat a year of stress and pressure.”
*Patrick Wright is a reporter for ABC Life. He began with the ABC as a producer for ABC News Digital in 2012 and has since worked in the Asia Pacific News Centre and for ABC News Victoria. He can be contacted on Twitter @patawright.
This article first appeared at abc.net.au
