How much time off do we need?

The answer is not what you might think

Recently, I shared an introduction to my process of active stress management for keeping myself going through busy and stressful times at work.

I’ve been pleased to hear how it resonated with readers since my hope for this Substck is to provide practical information for readers to positively impact their own lives and work.

If you missed the post, you can check it out here:

In addition to sharing my practices online, I’ve now taught hundreds of healthcare workers across the country in workshops, lectures, Grand Rounds, and at other healthcare conferences.

During these sessions, I’ve been asked some interesting (and occasionally hilarious) questions by audience members.

So, I thought I’d tackle one of the most interesting here today. I’ve been asked a version of this question many times. After you’ve read the post, you can feel free to add your own question or thoughts in the comments.

Many of the questions that I’m asked are rooted in misunderstandings about stress and burnout.

The most obvious example of this came from a trainee at a Grand Rounds session I gave with a colleague about our pediatric residency debriefing program.

“How much vacation is needed to prevent burnout?”

I hope this isn’t a shock to you, reader, but… typical vacations do not prevent or treat burnout. (I don’t think this was the answer they were looking for.)

I say “typical” because most of us treat vacations or time off as an “escape” from our job. In general, we plan activities (solo, with friends, with significant others, with family) as a way to get away from the stress at our job, not as a way to address stress.

We may find that we are unable to unwind while on vacation because of our stress.

We may spend the whole time preoccupied with work rather than engaging in the activities we are doing.

Or, commonly, we spend our time off dreading the return to work because we know that the conditions of our jobs haven’t magically changed while we are gone.

Addressing and preventing burnout requires actively choosing activities which target the stress that results from our jobs.

In order to recover while we are away, we must choose activities that have been shown to promote recovery. These are parasympathetic recovery activities which counteract the sympathetic stress response. They allow the stress cycle to be interrupted and for us to truly experience some degree of recovery.

It is possible to build these activities into our vacations and our days off with intention in order to recover better.

These six categories of activities have been shown to be beneficial for interrupting the stress cycle: Move your body, positive social interaction, laughter, breathing, creative expression, and affection

As you can see above, the activities which address stress can be incorporated into what many of us already like to do on vacation. We just need to be intentional about it.

Also, we have to be mindful while we are doing whichever activities we choose.

We need to actively engage in vacation activities during the moment instead of ruminating about what’s waiting for us when we return to work (e.g. a mountain of email).

Focusing on what’s waiting for us is a great way to ensure that our stress cycle will continue, thus increasing the chance of burnout occurring or continuing.

While we may not ever get to the point that we are excited about returning to work after time away, we will find that we return with more energy and less stress if we’ve chosen to be intentional while we were gone.

So, how much time off do we really need?

The answer is different for everyone. It depends on your baseline stress level. A few days may be enough, or a longer vacation may be necessary. Either way, time off and recovery activities are essential for professional quality of life.

If you don’t have a vacation coming up any time soon, you can try incorporating these activities into your routine on days off from work. I try to do something restorative each day that I’m off, even if I only have 5 minutes.

This allows me to refill my own cup and continue to help others.

One final word… if you’re experiencing burnout, a short vacation likely won’t be enough. You may need to take time away from your job in order to recover. You may need to seek professional help from a therapist or a coach. It’s ok to prioritize yourself in order to allow yourself to really recover.

How do you recover during your time away from work

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