Taking Regular Breaks Can Improve Your Health, Happiness and Productivity According to Vacation Expert Jennica Day

Our friends around the world call it a holiday, but whatever you call it, it’s something we all look forward to.

Taking regular breaks from work is essential for our health and well-being according to vacation expert Jennica Day. In a fascinating conversation on the Daily Dose of Happy podcast, Jennica shared insights from her research on how vacations can optimize our health and performance.

Jennica’s journey to studying vacations began from her own experiences of overtraining as an athlete which led to burnout. She realized the importance of rest for peak performance. Later, while teaching abroad, Jennica found herself just as burnt out without proper breaks. This inspired her master’s research into occupational recovery and effective vacationing.

According to Jennica, we accumulate stress from work that needs to be released, whether we love or hate our jobs. Following the “effort-recovery model”, stress builds up over time without breaks until we reach burnout. Jennica’s “vacation hero method” recommends taking shorter 5-day vacations every 10 weeks to consistently lower stress. This allows “relaxing, controlling your own time, and detaching from work” for optimal recovery.

Interestingly, host Walt Thiessen shared facing burnout himself from long work hours previously. He found reducing his gardening business work hours to just 5-10 hours weekly paradoxically increased productivity and happiness for himself and employees. This supports Jennica’s view that productivity is not about hours but working smarter through sufficient rest.

Jennica warns against the misconception that vacations require travel. Simply relaxing at home with a good book can be as restorative. The key is detaching mentally from work stresses. Her upcoming book “You Need a Better Vacation” promises to help readers optimize vacation planning for long-term health and wellness. Taking regular breaks, whether short staycations or longer trips, could be life-changing according to the research.

Her Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thevacationnerd/

Her TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@thevacationnerd

Episode page: https://www.loatoday.net/loa2045

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