It’s been the norm since the year dot: to work like a dog for the bulk of the year, then blow your entire annual leave in one go. Rinse and repeat. But is there a healthier way of using that precious holiday entitlement?
We know that rest is good for our health, and in case there’s any doubt, the European Society of Cardiology can put us right straightaway. A 40-year study they conducted found that those who took less than three weeks off a year were nearly 40% more likely to live shorter lives. Bulletin: Holidays are keeping us alive.
So if vacationing is so important, shouldn’t we be frequationing?
Frequationing (taking frequent holidays) may not be something you’ve encountered before, since I’ve just coined the term myself (you heard it here first), but there’s a reason you might want to try doing it soon.
Let’s use a food analogy. If you starve yourself for the best part of a day and reserve the night-time for some calorie-consuming carnival, your body might have something to say about it – in a loud and clear way, I suspect. Wouldn’t the body, then, handle rest in the same way? Wouldn’t that fortnight of freedom from the office be more beneficial for us if it were spread a little more thinly?
Let’s face it, the effects of a holiday don’t last very long – less than a month, to be precise, according to the University of Konstanz’s 2011 study. So if you’re peeved that your grand tour faded from memory just a few weeks after your return to the coalface, maybe it’s time for a change of strategy.
Halving the time and distance
You can see how all our vacation gets vacuumed up when you consider our holidaying habits. With the increased accessibility of air travel has come the growing desire to venture further afield, and for that you need more time, not just to recover from the travelling but to feel all that travelling has been worth it. So how about somewhere closer to home? If you’re in a plane for only half the time, then you might be more willing to go away for just the one week and keep the remainder of your leave for later in the year.
Staycationing
Covid created a staycationing boom, as the doors of the world’s countries shut in our faces, which rekindled our taste for holidaying on our own turf. So why not continue the trend? Free from the restrictions of flights, you’ll be in a better position to grab last-minute deals, and what you save on air fares can go towards your accommodation.
The long weekend
Well, it’s technically still a holiday, even if you’ve only got a handful of days to play with. And the shorter the vacation, the more of them you can have, peppering the working year with much-needed pit stops.
How you divvy up your days is down to personal taste. Some like an annual nosh-up; others prefer to snack throughout the year. However you work it, the important thing is to fit in your down time at some point. After all, life is short. And without the required R and R, it could be a whole lot shorter than you think.
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