How important is taking time off?

When your brain feels like it's over capacity and doing everything all at once, it could be a sign it's time to do nothing at all.

Endlessly distributing your attention can feel exhausting, especially when a lot hangs on your decisions and actions. Heavy workloads and relaxing don't exactly come hand in hand.

That's why time off is invaluable. Giving your brain a rest means you can better handle your workload when you return after a holiday.

Holiday on the horizon, but your overcrowded task list just keeps growing by the day?

When it all feels too much, you're dreaming of work, and the tasks are piled higher than Mount Everest, perhaps it's time to step back.

When work gets a bit mad, taking a holiday can feel like the most nonsensical thing to do. But actually, taking time off can realign your focus and make room for growth.

How holiday affects our wellbeing

The benefits of taking time off are invaluable.

When we take time off work...

• Our brains are recalibrated (we give our brains the time and space to process heavy loads of information)
• Workplace stress is lowered 
• We can balance out our time on the things that truly matter in life
• Freshens our mindset for tackling big projects

When we add new information into our brains that doesn't involve work (i.e., by doing activities that we find enjoyable) we are helping the growth of our business.

By nurturing your well-being, you're nurturing your business.

When you return to work with a fresh mindset, you're better mentally equipped to deal with big projects, and the output tends to be better.

But of course, there are different things we can do with our time off. And of course, we all have different ideas of what holiday means. It's about asking yourself what a holiday actually means to you.

It's about what you do with your time off

It's no secret that the cost of living is at an all-time high. For many of us, it's a financial mission to fill up the car with fuel, let alone jetting off to somewhere sunny.

Taking time off doesn't mean we have to splash thousands. Because the magic lies in what we do away from work: A day trip to somewhere you've been dying to explore, trying out a new hobby that you've always wanted to try, cooking a new recipe. Ultimately, it's anything that takes your mind away on a holiday, leaving your business behind.

Leaving your business out of the suitcase

After all, if we spend our holidays stressing about work - is it really a holiday? We're just moving one area of stress to something else.

When you're packing a suitcase for a holiday, would you pack up your whole business and add it to your luggage load?

Even if you feel like you don't need a holiday, it's wise to use allocated time off to your advantage. Sometimes we're not even aware that we need a holiday until we return from one. It's all about how we choose to nurture our brains.

Taking a holiday enriches our mental health

When you're on holiday, you're more open to the opportunity of experiencing moments of awe, which can be extremely beneficial for your mind.

When we do fun activities, our brains are showered with dopamine. It's like giving your brain a boost of vitamins. This enriches our mental health and therefore, our work.

Taking this time off...

• Increases productivity 
• Enhances creativity
• Improves decision making 
• Improves working relationships between colleagues

Doing fun things releases happy chemicals into our brains. When we experience these dopamine-inducing moments, we have more of a reason to complete workloads and heavy tasks.

It informs the pleasure-reward centres in our brain and does wonders for our neuroplasticity. Essentially when we take a holiday, our brain will thank us for it.

What's the point?

It's easy to get so caught up in the 'how' that we forget the 'why?'

Taking time off is a great way to reflect on your business.

We naturally get lost in the busyness of the day to day. Taking a step back can realign us with our purpose for working. This can be a massive motivational driver that makes going back to work all worth it.

It can be a gentle reminder of what's important in life, increasing our productivity when we get back to work.

Make better and more creative business decisions

Creative blocks? Sometimes the only thing that's holding you back is not allowing your mind to take a break.

Looking after your wellbeing by taking some holiday will clean your mental slate, and make room for new ideas.

By taking a break, you can realign your goals and redefine why you're doing something. Taking time to reflect can help us make better, more thoughtful decisions. Sometimes that's all it takes to reboot growth.

The workload might not change, but your mindset can.