By Reynaldo Mena
Daycation: On a trip I made to visit some friends in Brazil, I was surprised by the revelation of this couple. The man suffered from a lot of work-related stress, it was affecting him mentally and physically. And so, together they decided to take action on the matter. He would have one day a week in which he would not be responsible for anything at work or at home, it would be only for him.
He would get up early, wash up, grab his skate board and head out from the outskirts of Sao Paulo to the city center, gliding through the streets, going to his weekly therapy and then having a beer, visiting a museum or just relaxing on the streets. It was his ‘daycation’ for the week Here, Americans place a great deal of value on work. We describe ourselves in terms of our occupation, fail to use our allotted vacation time, and put a lot of faith in the belief that if you just work hard enough you can improve your life.
This belief is so ingrained that many of us take work with us when we are off and we don’t use all of our vacation days. When we do plan vacations, we work so hard figuring out how to meet our ongoing obligations at home and work that by the time we leave we are wondering if it is even a good idea. Once we are on the trip it takes a couple of days to relax and get into a vacation mindset and it often seems that the time passes too quickly.
When we get home we face piles of laundry, emails, and unpaid bills. If the trip goes well, it can offset all of these hassles. If our travel was disrupted by weather, travel delays, or interpersonal conflict, we may come home even more tired than we were before we left. The bottom line: Hoping that a trip will compensate for the stress we feel throughout the rest of the year is a high-stakes gamble. Essentially, we pile all of our holiday eggs in a single basket and are upset when some of them break.
What if we tried to capture some of that vacation feeling in a less all-or-nothing way? Could we figure out a way to take a “daycation” every few months throughout the year? This would not be a day when we lay around the house procrastinating on the things we don’t want to do. Instead, it would be an intentional mini-vacation. To do this we would have to figure out what we want this break to feel like. If we are bored, or unchallenged in our daily lives we might seek novelty or adventure.
If we feel overwhelmed by the demands of work, childcare, or other obligations we might be drawn to opportunities for peace and quiet. If we find our routines unfulfilling, we might choose to learn something new or to do something to help others. But figuring out what we want to do is only the first step in this process.
The second step is to figure out how to achieve our goal. Before we go on a traditional vacation, we spend time figuring out when to go, working out a budget, and creating an itinerary. We let people know that we will not be available for routine activities and give ourselves permission to focus on what we want to do during the trip. To plan an effective “daycation” escape we need to identify a specific day, mark it on our calendars, and resist the impulse to let other obligations supersede our plans.
Then we need to put our energy into researching activities in our own city or town. What museums, outdoor activities, or restaurants would be new to us? Are there things we have meant to do, or do only when we have out-of-town visitors? Chances are that most of us have been too busy working to fully explore our own communities. Once we identify things we are interested in we need to work out when they are available, make reservations as necessary, and plan the day the same way we would for a longer trip.
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