As an American working at an American firm, I get a very limited amount of vacation time. After being at my current employer for more than a decade I get just 15 vacation days each year. That’s three weeks total. That’s not enough to go and do what I want to do, so I have to really plan my trips. People often ask me if the frequency of travel is “worth it.” Why go away for such a short period, they ask? For only three full days in Europe is it worth the expense of the airfare, the jet lag and everything else. To that, I say a resounding YES! If I didn’t love short, frequent trips, I wouldn’t have flown to Singapore for 68 hours last month!
Singapore by night
You don’t have to have a month long sabbatical to disconnect and recharge your batteries. Taking a few days can help you reset and re-energize. You just need to be in the right mindset.
Frequency of Travel
Last year, my best friend got married. We had a couple of quick trips to associated with the wedding, but each time we added just a single day to the festivities and made a proper vacation out of the time. Weddings are always busy, but we came into the weekends knowing that we had a single day for a proper vacation and we fully used that day.
For example, the ceremony was in Palm Springs. The wedding events were from Friday through Sunday (not all day though). We arrived on Thursday morning and spent that day and most of Friday properly vacationing. With only two days away, we planned and we executed. Our offices knew we completely out of pocket. We didn’t do any work once we landed in Palm Springs – we disconnected; not even email. We ate; we drank; we didn’t really DO, we just were. It was fabulous.
One of my favorite podcasts, Happier, with Gretchen Rubin, focused on Duration versus Frequency this week. Gretchen and Liz talked about their trips to see each other, their parents their friends and even trips just with their spouses. They posited, and I agreed, more frequent vacations or contact is much better than long duration and much less frequent.
I’ve been a firm believer of this for years and have even written about it here before. If I felt I had to take a two-to-three week vacation each year, I would take just a single trip – and that would kill me.
What do you think? Do you prefer frequency or duration? I know, I’d rather have frequent, long trips, too, but that’s not really an option for most of us. What has been your favorite small duration trip you’ve taken this year?
Great post and yes in the U.S. unfortunately vacation time is slim. Businesses really should better study the correlation between employees who are rested and refreshed and productivity. So many workers are just perpetually burned out and their productivity and decision making take the hit. But to your question, if I am vacationing to relax, enjoy and/or see friends, or get away, I’ll take more frequent shorter vacations. If I am travelling to experience a culture that is new to me (as I did in Laos) or to study and experience a totally different environment (like going on a safari), I’ll do a much longer trip even if it means one trip a year.
Agreed! The cultural immersion is a great experience that requires more than a long weekend and it provides such a wonderful reward.
Great post 😁