Working a 60-80 hour work week is not uncommon in the US. Mobile technology allows us to work just as easily at home as in an office. While this can sometimes be a huge benefit, it also makes it difficult to just relax on our day off. Taking a day off shouldn’t just mean not going into the office. If you can’t actually rest and recharge on your day off, it’s not doing you a whole lot of good. Here are 4 tips to help you relax on your day off.
In a world that is more connected than ever before, people may also be feeling a greater disconnect than ever before. In some ways, you are like your cell phone—to get the most of your day off, you have to unplug if you want to recharge.
Relaxing doesn’t always mean doing nothing. In fact, some people have difficulty relaxing specifically because they don’t plan something relaxing to do. Relaxing activities can include getting a massage, spending some time in a hot tub, taking a long, hot bath or going on a long hike. What is relaxing is going to be different for everyone, but if you don’t fill your time with relaxing activities, you will most likely find yourself being drawn towards work activities.
Not all work is occupational work. Cooking, cleaning, running errands and doing chores are all just unpaid work. Sometimes, to truly relax, you need to get away from opportunities to work entirely. Whether you can take off for an entire weekend or just drive an hour away from home, sometimes in order to relax you need to simply go somewhere there is no work to be done.
It is a common misconception that introverts need to be along to recharge and extroverts need to be around other people. It is true that extroverts often feel more energized around a group of people, but introverts also recharge by having long, deep intimate conversations with a single individual—something extroverts often find highly taxing. If you are an introvert, making a plan with one friend will help ensure you don’t spend your day off working. If you are an extrovert, try and make plans with a group of friends.
Relaxation is not just something that happens for everyone. More often than not, relaxation takes just as much planning as work does. Ultimately, if you find yourself filling every spare moment with work, you need to create “filler” so that work does not intrude on your relaxation time.
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