Summer Vacation or Stresscation - Your Choice

When you are a kid thinking about summer, you are thinking about fun camps, family vacations and lazy days. When you are an adult with children thinking about summer, you are thinking “crap, I need to sign them up for camp”, “I’ve got so much work to do before vacation” and “how am I going to keep my kids from being lazy while I still have to work?” Oh, to have a child’s mindset again…  But summer can still be fun!  If we maximize our time at work and set personal check lists, we can make sure that when we can unplug for a bit, we REALLY unplug. 

I listened to a podcast recently that was describing how productive you are that day before you leave for vacation. You have so much energy and focus to check all the boxes to make sure you can leave stress free.  What if you could treat every day like it was the day before vacation? I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a recipe to get BURNT OUT. So, with this being the week before a popular holiday that people, including myself, often take time off for, I thought it would be good to share how I prep both professionally and personally before a vacation so that I can unplug and unwind to its FULLEST.

The KEY to success is: Don’t do it in a day. Spread everything out over the course of a week or longer so you are not stressed!

1. CLOTHING. Many people wait until the day before they leave to start packing. Unless you are a minimalist that only has 5 shirts and 5 pairs of pants, there is no reason to wait until the day before to pack.  I’m a big believer in spreading everything out over a week rather than pulling the all-nighter. Here’s what that looks like for me:

·   6 days before the trip I make sure that all the laundry is washed

·   5 days before I have everything folded and in piles by person

·   4 days before I pack up everything for my child clothing wise – that way I just have to think shoes

·   2-3 days before I pack my clothing – that way I only have to think about toiletries the morning of (encourage my spouse to do the same)

·   Day before – do any additional laundry that needs to be done so I am not coming home to dirty clothes.

2. FOOD.  When I am on vacation, I don’t want to do anything. My husband describes me as the most active lazy person he has ever met. I will go go go all day between my job, the gym and trying to be a good momma/wife, but when I get a chance to sit down, I become one with the couch. With that said, when we road trip, I try to pack pre-prepped meals so that I’m not doing a bunch of cooking and shopping during vacation. Here is a breakout of what I try to do ahead of time so that I can do a lot more sitting on vacation.

·   Shopping in advance: 3-4 days before our trip I do the grocery shopping for my ‘freezer’ meals and all the non-perishable snacks. 

·    3 days before I leave, I do my freezer meals. If we are going to be gone for a week, I try to make 2-3 dishes that make good leftovers. Once they are prepped, I stick them in the freezer, so they have a few days to get solid. This becomes the base of our big cooler to store any frozen/fridge items for the drive.

·    2 days before I leave, I pack all our non-perishable items. I put together things that I don’t like to buy when we get there but always want to have on hand. Things like bags of popcorn, boxes of mac and cheese, peanut butter, seasonings, etc. are great to have around for when you want to make a quick easy meal or a fast snack.

·     The night before I put together a separate smaller bag/cooler for the things we want access to in the car for the road trip. I try to make our snacks healthy and use up anything that we might have left over in the fridge that would be good for the day. Fruit, veggies and hummus, pretzels, nuts, etc. so I can munch between stops.

·      Alcohol. Yep, momma wants her wine. Instead of relying on places when we get into town, where you don’t know what the liquor laws are or price points, I try to stock up for the weeks leading up on BOGO wine to pack with me. 

3. ENTERTAINMENT. When it comes to road trips, the last thing I want is a bored kid asking me how much further until we get there. So here are my tips to help keep the kiddo entertained, and more importantly, mom and dad can stay SANE.

·   Charge all devices in advance. I try not to use the iPad unless it is an emergency, but when you are talking about 8 hours in the car, electronics become a must. So, I make sure that the iPad, LeapFrog, etc. are all at 100% battery life the night before so you don’t have to worry about a dead device. When I’m charging these, I also charge my fit bit, camera batteries, etc.

·   Special vacation toys.  I love the dollar section at Target. I stock up on small activities and hide them in the closet for future use. That way when you do hear someone is bored of sitting, you can pull out a coloring book, surprise toy, etc. to keep them entertained.

·  Car games. Something else I try to have prepared are flash cards or some type of trivia game that we can play during the card ride to help pass the time by. I also make sure that my favorite podcasts are all downloaded in case we go through dead zones where cell service is limited.

4. CLEANING. When I leave to go on vacation, I LOVE leaving the house spotless. That way when I get home, I don’t feel like I have chores on top of unpacking and getting ready for the following week. These are my key items:

·    Dishes – I want all dishes ran in the dishwasher the night before and I put them away before we leave

·    Clutter – if its not going in the car, it shouldn’t be on our counters or floor. The night before I make sure everything is picked up.

·    Trash – we make sure that every trash can is completely emptied and put outside in our large bin.

·    Sheets – there is nothing better than getting home and sleeping in a freshly made bed with clean sheets. I always make sure that our bed is ready for when we get home exhausted. 

·   Fridge food – everything either gets packed up to come with us or tossed out if it is perishable. I don’t want to come home to spoiled milk or rotten spinach.

·   Rumba – if I’m feeling ambitious, the day before we leave, I make sure to run the rumba so the floors are clean too. 

5. WELLNESS. Unless you are taking a weak long yoga retreat, most likely you will be indulging in some bad habits while you are gone. Whether it is an extra scoop of ice cream, eating out daily, or just taking a nap instead of a run, vacations can break a diet and good habits quickly. So here is my list to make sure I don’t get completely off track while I unwind:

·    Eat clean before vacation. I try to view vacation the same way I do a wedding or any other big event and try to get in my best shape before I leave. That way I feel less guilt while I am gone.

·    Don’t eat out. No reason to waste food – pre-vacation is the prefect time to use up all those fruits and veggies sitting in the fridge rather than going bad.

·    Extra workouts. You never know when you are going to be able to squeeze in some fitness during vacation (or if you will even want to) so don’t give up your GREAT habits too early. Get in an extra run or yoga session before you leave.

·    Cut the alcohol intake. If you do indulge in drinking, take a break before vacation. We tend to overindulge in all the unhealthy things on vacation so try to balance it out before you leave.

6. WORK.  I saved the biggest one for last. Obviously, you have to feel like things are wrapped up in order for you to truly unwind. Here is my checklist to be able to unplug:

·    The Monday before I leave, I make my to do list of the things that MUST be wrapped up before I leave. You need to make those things a priority since lots of little things will pop up throughout the week.

·    Every day before I wrap up work, I set my to do list for the following day – check on that ‘must do’ list to see the progress. Truly, this should be a daily habit but that isn’t always the case.

·   The day before I leave, I make sure that my physical office space is clear. Inbox is organized or completed, papers find homes, clutter is gone.

·  I also make sure my email inbox is empty. There is nothing more stressful than coming back to 100 emails waiting for you on top of the 50 that you haven’t organized. If you have daily subscriptions that you enjoy getting – put them in a separate folder. 

·  Designate a contact person while you are gone. Unless it is a serious emergency, you need to have the chain of communication set up where you are the last person they need to reach out to. Have a back up to your back up if needed.

· Don’t forget to set your out of office. 

· Most importantly, remember that the world will continue to turn without you in the office. You are a better employee when you are able to give yourself mental and physical space from work. Once the ‘out of office’ is on, do everything you can to truly let go and stay unplugged.

I know nothing on this list is revolutionary. They are all simple habits. However, when you put all these simple habits together, the impact is huge. With that, I wish all of you a happy, stress-free and SAFE Holiday weekend!