Everyone loves their time off. From the time you were a child running home from the last day of school to the time you’re a fully grown adult taking some well-deserved time off work. A vacation is a chance to get away from the responsibilities of daily life. On your to-do list, you only have to check off relaxation.
But many people are more excited before they go on vacation than during it. You wouldn’t want to feel like that, would you? Here are some tips on how you can enjoy your time off as much as possible.
Don’t Overhype it
If you hype up your vacation to the point where you expect it to be the best time of your life, you might leave feeling underwhelmed. Having grand expectations might be setting you up for failure.
Of course, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t look forward to your vacation. It’s just that expectations ruin many things in life. You might start your vacation having already planned out the kind of fun you’d like to have, but it might take a whole different direction. It’s better to go with the flow.
Don’t Pressure Yourself into Getting the Most Out of Every Second
You’re taking time off work and paying money to go on vacation, so you might feel pressured to make the most out of every second. If you don’t, it feels like a waste of your resources. This isn’t a good mindset to have as you’re going on vacation. You naturally want to have fun and get your money’s worth, but you can’t quantify fun or relaxation.
How much fun would you say you must have before you decide that your time and money weren’t wasted? It’s a nonsensical and humorous question. Trying to maximize the ROI of your vacation is counter-intuitive. You can’t treat your vacation like you treat your job. The primary objective here is that you enjoy yourself.
If you don’t manage to visit every last attraction in the area and you end up staying inside more than you’d hoped, don’t make yourself feel upset about it. At the end of the day, a vacation that you spent the way you wanted to is a successful vacation.
Get your Finances in Order so you can Afford to Splurge
Vacations can be costly. A Healthline study shows that most adults’ main stress during the holidays is juggling their finances. This is why you should save up before you go on vacation. Look up attractions in the area, think about what you might want to do, and how much those things might cost. Then, add a little extra to that price.
While being financially responsible is always important, you want to be able to splurge on the little things so that you can have a little fun. For example, buy a souvenir from an antique shop, a new bathing suit for your beach holiday, or a floating mat for lake vacations. These things aren’t necessary, but they add to the fun you’re already having. It’s always about the little things in life.
Unplug
This is something we can all gain from even in everyday life. As much convenience as the internet grants us, always being connected to everyone can be overwhelming. You’ll probably have the compulsion to constantly check your social media, emails, and text messages. While this isn’t inherently harmful, it can become difficult to know when to stop.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. You lay down on your bed, and you pull out your phone. You open your Twitter or Instagram and look at your feed. You see a funny or interesting post, so you tap on it. You’re recommended more posts like it. Maybe you see some cool stuff or you see a few posts that make you angry or sad about the state of the world.
You keep scrolling, losing track of time, each post keeping your attention just enough to make you scroll one more time. You look up. It’s almost completely dark. This isn’t a good way to spend your vacation. Maybe you can spend some time like this, but not all of it. You can doomscroll at home too. This is why it’s important to unplug for at least a few hours and live in the moment while you’re on holiday. You’ll feel much better.
Vacations are your chance to take a break from the everyday struggle to improve your work performance. It’s only natural that you’d want to maximize fun and minimize stress. Hopefully, now you know what to do when you’re faced with some of the most common vacation-ruining scenarios. Enjoy your vacation!
