Give yourself some proper timeout this summer: It could be the best holiday you have ever had!
After a rollercoaster of, what is now nearing 18 months, you could be forgiven for feeling like a proper holiday is still a far-away illusion. The blurring of lines between work and home has, for many of us, made the ability to take proper time out incredibly difficult. We have been left feeling like we can never get truly ‘away from it all’ and this has led to a situation where many of us feel overwhelmed, stressed and at the point of burnout. Our default reaction to this is often just to keep on going and, in fact, what we often tend to try to do is cram even more into day.
The ability to give yourself permission to have proper timeout is something that many of us are afraid of doing. We are afraid of working less for fear of how others might perceive this, we often personally connect with our work too so that our work performance becomes a personal reflection of ourselves.
Despite these feelings, giving yourself permission to have some proper timeout not only gives your body a physical rest but it also helps create crucial clarity around what is important to us, gives us some much-needed perspective of the issues that have been swirling around in our minds and renews our ability to prioritise, something that often gets lost amongst the never ending to do lists! When we take time out, we can start learning to tap into our intuition, something that is often clouded by overwhelm and stress.
Carving out some time-out, whether that’s a few hours, a day or a week, creates the conditions you need to get out of short-term thinking patterns and instead think long-term. Longer-term thinking is where the magic happens: the dreams are imagined, the inspirations created, the pursuit of happiness prioritised.
So how can you make sure that you get this precious time out?
Schedule it into your diary like you would with a work meeting. I guarantee it will be the most worthwhile meeting you will attend!
Physically move yourself to a different place, whether that be somewhere far from home or just the local park or coffee shop. This will help you to shift those usual patterns of thinking that you associate with your normal environment.
Switch off your phone notifications so you are not constantly checking what’s going on and put on your ‘out of office’ on your emails.
Creating proper timeout allows you to move forward on your own terms: more balanced and fulfilled.