If you want to get stuff done at work, you need to take breaks. Our brains and bodies aren’t meant to go non-stop. The longer you go without taking a break, the slower you’re going to be working. By taking breaks, you’re going to increase your productivity and probably get more done in the long run. Occasionally, you’re going to need a day off, or even a full vacation.
When you work in a regular office, you have specific vacation time that you can take to get out of the office. When you work at home, it’s easy to not only skip vacations, but also to work through weekends and holidays too. If you try to take a day off at home, you’ll often end up working through your break. To really get a break, you need to get out of the office and the house.
You’ve probably heard of people or media outlets talk about office burnout. This is when you get so stressed out at work, you just don’t want to do it anymore. You’re tired, angry, and disinterested in your work, or sometimes anything else. This not only decreases your productivity, it also can be dangerous to your health.
Don’t have time to take off? You’ll get too far behind on your projects? Before you write off taking a break, sit down and think about why you started working at home to begin with. Chances are it had something to do with your family. Whether it was to make more money for them or to spend more time with them, it’s probably about them. If you work yourself so hard you’re having physical and mental problems, how is that helping your family?
When we’re used to keeping going and going, it’s hard to figure out what to do on a day off. However, there are plenty of things you can do for any interest. Like learning? You can go to a local museum. If you like nature, go to your local zoo or park. If you prefer adventure you could take the family canoeing. If you just need to relax you might look into your local day spa. There are endless possibilities to fit every personality.
Just because you take a day away from the office doesn’t mean you necessarily need to stop working. One great way to do this is to go to a seminar. The beauty of seminars is not just that you meet new people and learn things, it’s that they’re often in fun, sometimes exotic places. You can build useful business relationships, learn new techniques and ideas, and have a relaxing vacation all at the same time. If there are no useful seminars, you could just go on vacation with someone in your field. You can brainstorm, trade ideas, and relax at the same time.
The important thing to remember is that if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else. Taking the occasional day off is a great idea to recharge and refresh yourself so you can get back to being the best version of you.