Recharge Your Brain for Better Business
Photo: Deborah Lockridge
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Photo: Deborah Lockridge
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It’s Memorial Day weekend, the kickoff for many to the summer vacation season. And if you think skipping vacation in order to get more work done is good for your business, your career, or your mental health, think again.
During HDT’s inaugural Heavy Duty Trucking Exchange event earlier this month, keynote speaker Tim Richardson spoke about innovative thinking, and one of his key points was the need to step back from your day-to-day work. “How can we stay on the top of our game if we are at it all the time?” he asked.
Taking a vacation is more important now than ever, as the line between work life and personal life increasingly blurs with people checking email and taking calls during their kids’ soccer game or even at the dinner table.
Some forward-thinking companies not only pay for employees’ time off — they actually help pay for them to go on vacation and expand their horizons. That’s because numerous studies show that taking time off to recharge our bodies and our minds is vital for our physical and mental well-being — and makes us more productive and creative.
Project: Time Off says “the data is unmistakably clear: planning for and taking time off benefits individual well-being and professional success, business performance, and the broader economy.” So-called “work martyrs,” it has found, are actually less likely to get a raise or bonus, and are no more likely to get a promotion. What they do have is more stress.
To really spark creativity, experts suggest making sure your vacation involves new experiences, especially traveling abroad and experiencing other cultures. “New sounds, smells, language, tastes, sensations, and sights spark different synapses in the brain,” notes this 2015 article in The Atlantic. “Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and …Read the rest of this story
