How much vacation is enough vacation?

[jaunthie]

This might seem like a silly question to many of you. After all, can you really have *too much* vacation? Possibly not, but that's not the real focus of my query. No, I'm wondering how much vacation is required to feel really rested, and for the rested effect to last for more than one day back on the job. Because as lovely as the last week was, it wasn't enough. I'm dead tired this morning, just as usual.

Granted, my vacation was pretty busy. My brother and his family were in town, including my adorable 2-and-a-half-year-old nephew, also known as a perpetual motion machine. The whole family travelled to spend several days with my wonderful aunt. I also had a double creative deadline, one writing, one photography. I had multiple wonderful get-togethers with friends, including an epic dinner at the local tapas place. And then there was the watering, the gardening, the packing and unpacking and and and... So yes, it was a fairly packed vacation. All the same, I got quite a bit of sleep, and lots of wonderful family time, and I *thought* I was all rested and recharged and ready to dive back into the swing of things.

Oooof. Well, I'm back in the swing of things all right, but it's the morning of the second day in, and I'm pooped. I think I should have taken one "me" day this past vacation, where I slept in, read a book, and otherwise did nothing productive at all. Maybe that would have helped.

Or maybe I just need to get to bed at a reasonable hour. ;-)

But seriously: for those of you reading this, what do you do to recharge? How long does it take you to feel reinvigorated? Any particular recommendations? I'm curious to know.

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

I get two kind of vacations - one when I go somewhere, one when Kendrick goes somewhere. Oh, wait - and then there's "blow off the lab and do fun stuff and home".

Usually my vacations are all about going back to Seattle, seeing folks, and training a whole lot. It always helps me reset my priorities. Though when Kendrick's gone... usually I'm still working, but I'll often make a point of doing something wild frivolous... um, like buying myself a piece of fiction, and then going out to eat and reading it. (I actually love eating by myself with good fiction, but I don't often indulge it.) Or reorganizing my closet. Oh - that's another thing: doing some kind of brainless task around the apartment while playing NPR really loud. (Some mornings I'll get up and do yoga for two hours - nice and slow - while listening to NPR. bliss!)

Hiking and foraging is another one. And I'm not thinking really ambitious hiking and foraging more just driving out into the mountains and wandering around a bit. I usually find something to eat and drag it back, or decide that I really need to get to that summit, or something, but that's not planned.

My PI keeps Sabbath, and speaks very highly of having the day from which work is forbidden. I really agree, though I think the yoga / zhan zhuang / sparring / forms in the morning and sitting in the evening has some of the same purpose in my life. Kendrick has opined that one of the reasons he loves sitting and staring at a wall so much is being in grad school... and again, I'd be tempted to agree, but I liked that before.

Come to think of it, so did he.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so I don't have a life...