
199. Why You Need an Unplugged Vacation
Audio
Overview
It is officially summer which means that it is time for a vacation. You have planned your vacation already, right? You do realize that taking time for you and your family is super important, right? It’s just a fact that taking time for yourself helps with decreasing stress, improving your health, and even career success.
So, if you haven’t a vacation (or even if you have!), Blake, Verbs, and Nick are here to tell you why taking a vacation is so important.
You will learn:
- How vacations can stimulate your mental rejuvenation similar to meditative exercises
- The surprising link between regular vacations and improved physical health indicators, like blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol
- The role of vacations in strengthening family bonds and friendships
- The inspirational potential of vacations in reigniting your passion and driving your ambitions
Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MuZKJn_OB-s
Remember to get all of the vacation help you need with our Vacation Optimizer! Go to https://fullfocus.co/vacation/ to get your free download.
Make sure to visit the Full Focus Planner Community on Facebook to find thousands of other planner users: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ffpthinktank
For more episodes, visit www.focusonthispodcast.com
Episode Transcript
So guys, I don’t want to ruin the surprise for everybody. It is not actually July as we record this, but it will be July as people hear this, and that means that we are solidly within summer. We’ve passed over the longest day of the year. And the question is, how are you two going to relax this summer? Do you have any vacations planned? Do you have any breaks planned? Verbs, what do you got going on?
Verbs Boyer:
It’s interesting that you use the term relax in summer, both in the same sentence while our children are at the house.
Nick Jaworski:
Yes.
Verbs Boyer:
No, I think, actually, just as we were talking about this before we came on live, the one thing I know we’ve been trying to do intentionally is just savor the weekends. So when it’s not the work week, but then making sure that a Saturday, again, monitoring those times we say yes to a gathering of some sort and just kind of really maximizing the Saturdays as a rest day. Because for us, Sunday is not a rest day. We’re out, whether it’s church, whether it’s after church, whether it’s just connecting with friends. So it could still be an active day, but just making sure that we have our weekends, have a good handle on those, as well as planning a trip down to Six Flags Over Georgia.
Nick Jaworski:
Oh, that’s exciting.
Verbs Boyer:
But yet again, I would not say that in rest in the same sentence, but it is vacation time. Fun with the fam.
Nick Jaworski:
Yeah. You can come up to Six Flags Mid-America or whatever. You’d be like 15 minutes for me.
Verbs Boyer:
Is that what it’s called? Six Flags Mid-America?
Nick Jaworski:
It used to be St. Louis. I think they may’ve changed. I don’t know, but there’s the Six Flags, like 15 minutes for me.
Verbs Boyer:
Yeah.
Nick Jaworski:
Not to brag. Blake, what about you?
Blake Stratton:
Oh, man. I could get nausea whenever I want, y’all.
Verbs Boyer:
Yeah.
Blake Stratton:
Yeah. The summer vacay, we’re going to do what all Tennesseans do. It gets really hot here, kind of a little swampy, a little bit humid in Nashville. And so, what we all like to do here in Tennessee is go to Florida to get even hotter and even more humid. And so, we are following suit. We’re going to link up with some family down there soon. In fact, perhaps as this podcast is hitting the airwaves, you can just imagine me imagining that I’m relaxing on the beach while actually wrangling two children on the beach. That’s probably what I’ll do. No, but in all seriousness, the nice part about traveling with some family, get the grandparents involved, it’s like, “Yeah, we’ll be together.” Except my secret plan is to say, “Hey, you haven’t seen your grandkids in so long. Here they are. Also, bye.”
Nick Jaworski:
I’ll see you Thursday.
Blake Stratton:
Yeah, exactly. So that’s when I make my escape.
Nick Jaworski:
Yeah.
Verbs Boyer:
Oh, they’ll come find you, though. Just know this. As long as you have a cell phone blip emitting from your device, your parents will find you.
Nick Jaworski:
Traditionally, I take off the month of July as part of my rest, and I come from a family, single mom, three kids. We would vacation to family, go to Nashville a lot, but I didn’t have the vacation gene. I don’t go, “I have time off. I’m going to go to Paris or I’m going to go to New York.” When I have time off, I’m just like, “I’m going to go sit in that other room that I never get to sit in.”
Verbs Boyer:
You’re not planning in January for July?
Nick Jaworski:
No.
Verbs Boyer:
Is what you’re saying.
Nick Jaworski:
Well, and I just go and I just sit there and just feel things. But right now, we’re in the process of, I know this is going to sound crazy, we’re reorganizing our house. And for once in my life, it is actually exciting. I feel good about getting rid of all this crap. So that is my break, but it is exciting.
Verbs Boyer:
Wait.
Nick Jaworski:
Yes.
Verbs Boyer:
Can we pause for a second, though? When you said you take off July, are you talking about the entire month of July?
Nick Jaworski:
So traditionally, yes.
Verbs Boyer:
Okay.
Nick Jaworski:
Not this year because I had to take off so much time for a baby and other stuff, but I do. I work with other podcasts obviously, and we orient our entire year around two lengthy breaks. And originally I thought it was just for me because I was working so much, and then it turns out that everybody was thrilled to not have to think about their podcasts for a month at a time. Once in July, once in the December, early January. So this year probably be two and a half weeks, three weeks.
Verbs Boyer:
Have you always done this? Even pre focus on this?
Nick Jaworski:
This is a Michael Hyatt. He said it out loud for himself. He’s like, “Oh, I’m going to take this first sabbatical month or whatever.” And I was like, “Oh, you can do that?” And so, I tried it. It started off as two weeks and now it’s sort of expanded out, but it’s great. Guys, I just want to sit around.
Verbs Boyer:
Congratulations to you.
Nick Jaworski:
Thank you.
Verbs Boyer:
That’s awesome.
Nick Jaworski:
I just want to sit around. I’m going to be that old guy on the porch just rocking and just enjoying a nice cold lemonade. That’s what I want for my breaks. This is a long conversation about our vacations. There is a point to this.
Blake Stratton:
I know. I’m ready. I’m ready. Let’s sign off. I think people have gotten a good grip. I’m ready. Let’s go.
Verbs Boyer:
Thank you for joining us. We’ll be back next week.
Blake Stratton:
Yeah. The listeners are like, “It feels like you already are taking vacation right now during this recording.”
Verbs Boyer:
We are there.
Nick Jaworski:
We’re just catching up. We don’t get to talk that often. Well, today we’re going to talk about the value in terms of your happiness, in terms of your productivity in unplugging, and what an unplugged vacation looks like.
Verbs Boyer:
Welcome to another episode of Focus On This, the most productive podcast on the internet, so you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done, and finally start Loving Monday. My name is Verbs, here with Blake Stratton, and of course our producer, Nick Jaworski. Happy Monday to you both, gentlemen.
Blake Stratton:
Happy Monday unto you, sir.
Nick Jaworski:
Happy Monday, Verbs. Blake.
Blake Stratton:
Nick.
Nick Jaworski:
You’re a professional person who helps people get the most out of their life. Do you want to tell us the first reason why perhaps unplugging on our vacation for unplugging from work has value for us?
Blake Stratton:
Absolutely. The first reason is mental rejuvenation. Mental rejuvenation. A lot of times we think about rest or vacation and we just think about oftentimes we’re physically tired. Maybe we’ve been working and just, “Oh, I just want to rest.” And we even associate rest with things like sleep. But there is such a tremendous benefit and a need, really, to rest your brain. There’s this lie that we tell ourselves that the best way to reach my goal is to just keep going and to keep pushing. But at a certain point, there’s a point of diminishing returns on that. And the more that you push your brain to think of new ideas or to figure out problems, we go, “Well, I can’t rest ’cause I haven’t figured this out yet.” And yet, ironically, the fastest path to figuring out the challenge in your business or your life or your work is to actually rest.
Because when you’re on vacation, actually unplugging from thinking about the problem, your brain can rest and rejuvenate. And when it does, it’s wild how easily better ideas, better thinking can begin to flow naturally. This is maybe sneaky. My favorite thing about vacation is not always the activities of rest themselves. It’s just how easy. It’s almost like there was a clog, so to speak, in my brain synapses or something like that. Then when I come back, it’s like, “Oh, the ideas are coming a little bit easier, a little bit faster. This problem felt like such heavy lifting before, but now it’s coming a little bit easier.” So mental rejuvenation is a huge reason, take an unplugged vacation.
Nick Jaworski:
Do people still do Wordles? Are we still doing that?
Verbs Boyer:
Someone is.
Nick Jaworski:
I do.
Verbs Boyer:
Somewhere. Someone on vacation is on Wordle right now.
Nick Jaworski:
I still do Wordles. And sometimes you’ll go like, “Oh, I’m going to put my first word in, blah.” And you’ll get two or three words in and then you’ll go, “I don’t know what this word is at all. I’ve never seen whatever this is. What is this X? What is this?” And then I’ll have to go to other work and I’ll come back to it an hour or two later and I will immediately get the word. I will go, I haven’t been thinking about it past. I’ll go, “Oh yeah, it’s vague or whatever it is.” And so it’s sort of like that. Your brain just needs time. It’s going to do its thing on its own, but you got to give it that time to process.
Verbs Boyer:
Yeah. I think also what’s important to underscore is this whole idea of mindfulness as well. Because when we’re in the day-to-day grind thinking about the things we need to think about for that day, we never kind of pull back to that panoramic view of just what’s going on in life. And so, I think those vacation times, those intentional pauses of getting outside of your normal activity and getting a way to do something else, even if you have planned activities in another location, you’re not in your normal kind of frame of life. And just to get out of those helps your mind think about other things other than work, which I think, if I’m not mistaken, Blake, correct me if I’m wrong on this, but it normally takes us at least a week to fully unplug in our mind from our work or our job cycle that we’re always on in thinking about things back at the office.
So, as much as you can, as Nick has displayed, is possible to stretch that time out to where you can allow yourself to taper down on the work matters and then really start to settle in into vacation mode and then really get to that rest and that mindfulness state that we all need to get to avoid burnout. Did I say that correctly, Blake, as far as the idea behind longer vacations or just restful and/or wellness?
Blake Stratton:
Again, I think that there’s absolutely some truth to that. Those of you listening, if you have taken a week’s vacation, sometimes you feel like the vacations started four days in because that’s how long it took for you to actually get there. But I think for those that probably need to hear this message, taking a month off may feel like, “Wait. Oh, that’s just impossible. That’s just not feasible.” As Nick said earlier, even with the Wordle thing, this principle about your brain help even 15 minutes of a break in a day makes a difference. So, incrementally from there, take what you can get. A busy person that has a lot of responsibilities. Take what you can get, and while you’re there, I think probably if you don’t have as much time as you would like, to begin to fill your mind with non work activities. So if it’s hard, for instance, to unplug, well, bring a paperback thriller or something. Take something to engage your mind elsewhere from the day-to-day rhythm and work that you’re used to.
Which brings us to the second reason to take an unplugged vacation, improved physical health. So it’s not just your mental health that is going to benefit from this unplugged vacation, but physically, there’s a cascading effect that’s going to affect you positively in a physical, really tangible way.
Verbs Boyer:
Yeah, even as you’re saying that, I’m thinking back. And you hear these stories all the time of people who just get into a busy season of life, they start to not only feel stress, but then their physical body starts to read stress as well. I remember, for me, I was working in a role at a nonprofit organization. We were in the middle of a building kind of campaign and program. And I remember we’re laying in my bed one morning and feeling like, “Oh, man. I think I’m possibly having some sort of heart attack,” or something like that, because my chest was just had those palpitations. So I got up, drove myself down to the ER thinking, “All right, they’re surely going to say something’s going on with my heart.” And went through a whole battery of tests only for the doctor to ask me, “Hey, what kind of work do you do?” And then, “Are you stressed?” And I was like, “Yeah, I am kind of stressed.” And he was like, Well, that makes sense. We see it all the time.”
And so just the importance of, again, knowing when to press pause and how do I orient my work life? Do I have time where I can step out to regain whatever physical rejuvenation that needs to happen in those times because it’s at some point or another, you’re going to feel the physical effects of just all that busyness and all that pressure that’s going on in the workplace.
Nick Jaworski:
There’s also another element of physical health, which is that if you’re at your desk all day, your body might hurt for real. And so then you leave your desk at the end of the day, you’re taking generic pain medicine, not to use a brand, and you’re feeling bad. You’re not sleeping as well as you could. And so I find that, by the time July comes, my body just needs to be in a different position for days on end. It’s I’m moving more, I’m out walking more. I’m not just stuck here at the desk. And so, there’s just an opportunity there. The toll that takes on your body and mind and sleep and energy every day is very real. And I think sometimes we don’t even notice it. My arm hurts now above a certain angle. I just turned 40 and I’m like, “This is my life now, I guess. I don’t think it’s going to get any better.” But that adds up. Just think, the more that hurts, the more I think about it, the more stressed I am, all those things. So get away from the desk.
Verbs Boyer:
So, reason number three is vacations can be a time to connect. Think about some of your most valuable relationships, whether they’re friends, whether they’re family. This is a great time to where you’re not hurried out of a conversation that you may feel hurried in any other time because you have time set aside to just vacate. So it’s a good time to connect with others, and provide time to where you can create moments with those friends or with those family. Sometimes these stories could go many different ways when it comes to vacations specifically with families. But do either of you have any kind of funny stories, any anecdotes, around vacationing with family or friends?
Nick Jaworski:
Well, I don’t know if it’s a funny story, but I do want to give voice to how this might look in a low pressure situation. So for years, it hasn’t happened last couple years, but for over a decade, some of my very dear friends and I make plans on New Year’s Eve. Look, New Year’s Eve sucks. Guys.
Blake Stratton:
What?
Nick Jaworski:
New Year’s Eve is the worst holiday of all the holidays.
Blake Stratton:
No way, man.
Nick Jaworski:
Yes.
Blake Stratton:
You get to have some champagne, fall asleep at 9:30.
Nick Jaworski:
Okay, there you go.
Blake Stratton:
Wake up, then bang a pot and pan.
Verbs Boyer:
Nick, you have to tell us your why.
Nick Jaworski:
Okay, so if that’s how you’re doing it, then great. But generally, especially when you’re in college and your twenties and everyone tells you New Year’s Eve is this thing, and it’s dumb. Sorry. Hot take. New Year’s Eve is dumb.
Blake Stratton:
For alert, for alert.
Nick Jaworski:
To avoid that, a bunch of years ago, some friends decided we’re going to do our own New Year’s Eve ritual or routine or tradition, which was to rent a cabin. We’ve gone to Kentucky. We’ve gone to Southern Missouri. We’ve gone to Illinois. And you can rent a cabin cheaply in the off season. People want cabins during the summer. You want a cabin December 31st, guess what? Great prices. And you go. And the rule is that you’re not really allowed to leave the cabin for three days. You’re really supposed to stay in your pajamas, basically. Some people might go run or take a hike or whatever, but you just go and you play board games and people take turns cooking and stuff, and it’s like the quietest best time that you could possibly imagine. It’s so nice. It’s so fun.
We’ve had all kinds of fights over what counts as a legal Scrabble word or whatever. But it’s such a nice thing. Now that we have more children in our lives and stuff, we have to call in a lot of favors from other family. “Can you please take my children for 18 hours?” And then my mom’s going to come by and pick them up for 12 and a half hours. Whatever we have to do, we make it happen. And so that’s the kind of thing, that’s like one of my favorite traditions that I have in my life, honestly, is those quiet New Year’s Eve.
Verbs Boyer:
That’s incredible. At first, when you started, it sounded like the plot of a horror film when you said, “Three days, nobody’s allowed to leave.”
Nick Jaworski:
Yeah.
Verbs Boyer:
I was like, Lord have mercy. What happens next?
Nick Jaworski:
I would watch that movie.
Verbs Boyer:
You should make that movie, Nick. Actually, you should make that movie.
Nick Jaworski:
All right. But, Verbs, we’re making that movie.
Verbs Boyer:
Let’s do it.
Nick Jaworski:
That brings us to reason number four, which is remembering your why. So, Blake, help us understand what’s happening here. How do vacations help us remember our why?
Blake Stratton:
This is connected to the first reason for me, which is that mental reset. Oftentimes, we are so caught up in the busyness of our day-to-day that we can lose sight of what it’s all for and why it matters. So by removing yourself from the context of work, from the context of the daily repetitive responsibilities, you have this opportunity to really effortlessly elevate and see the big picture, to begin to reflect on your life as a whole. This is something that, to me, occurs naturally. If I’m unplugged for really anything longer than a few days, it allows me to effortlessly begin to reflect and begin to understand sometimes the value of what I’m actually doing.
For instance, I remember this was over a Christmas holiday type of vacation, and I was working really hard on this specific offer that I thought would really help my business. And as I just zoomed out and I unplugged for a little while, I was reflecting on why I was even doing a coaching and consulting business in the first place. And I remembered, “Oh yeah, it’s because I really care about impacting people in this way, and I really care about developing freedom in this way.” And the more I thought about it, I was like, “Wait a second. I don’t know that this even really fits because this is starting to seem more just like a means to an end type of a goal than a goal that’s actually deeply meaningful to me.”
And so, I think that can occur for you naturally when you take a vacation, is you have this opportunity to step away and to get some refreshment and begin to reconnect with your why. So that could help you edit some of your goals, which is great. But even if nothing changes about your goals, I find that when you enter back into your routines, you can do so with a bit more vigor, a little more intention because of that connectedness, that renewed connectedness with your why.
Verbs Boyer:
So today’s tip to level up your focus is take some time, think back on these four reasons that we discussed today in this episode, and set aside time to where you can plan a vacation for this year and even how to include that vacation in your upcoming quarterly goals.
Nick Jaworski:
We talked about vacations today and we talked about unplugging, but guess what? We actually have something to help you do that. It is the Vacation Optimizer. You can download this for free at full focus.co/vacation, and it’s what’s going to help you define what you need in order to get away and feel good. It’s going to give you some rejuvenation tips. It’s got all the stuff you need. It’s very simple. Sometimes the simple things can be the most powerful. So go check out full focus.co/vacation before you take your vacation so you make sure you’re rested.
Verbs Boyer:
Thank you for joining us on Focus on This.
Blake Stratton:
This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so share it with your friends. And don’t forget to join us on Facebook in the Full Focus Planner Community.
Verbs Boyer:
We’ll be back next week with another great episode. But until then…
Blake Stratton:
Stay focused,
Verbs Boyer:
… Stay focused. Ooh wee.