What’s the secret to maintaining optimal productivity? If you ask successful professionals and entrepreneurs, they’ll all share distinctive strategies. Some focus on the work-life balance, some rely on tools that reduce the risk of getting distracted.
Universally speaking, dealing with exhaustion and stress in the best possible way will contribute to a high level of productivity. Most people address these problems in one simple way – they take a vacation and travel.
Research shows that leisure-time is an important predictor of wellbeing and satisfaction with life. Thus, going on a vacation and traveling can increase engagement and productivity when one goes back to work.
Several reasons contribute to travel being the key to a more productive office routine. Here are a few of the reasons why you should be booking vacations at interesting locations much more often.
A Break Relieves Exhaustion
The contemporary professional is overworked and heavily stressed out.
Exhaustion and stress reduce productivity significantly. Statistics show Americans are working 47 hours per week on the average. At the same time, Americans aren’t the most productive workers out there. Working extensive hours can contribute to chronic fatigue and health issues. These bring productivity down and they could also contribute to a high number of sick days.
Scandinavian countries are leaders and pioneers when it comes to reducing the length of the work week. Regardless of the fact that people in Scandinavian countries work less than their American counterparts, productivity hasn’t suffered.
Productivity isn’t about spending a certain number of hours at the office. The primary goal is to get more work done. When a person is properly relaxed and energized, they can tackle a much higher volume of work in a much shorter time frame than someone who is exhausted.
Going on a vacation takes you out of the office routine and gives you a chance to relax. You will come back fully energized and much more capable of working effectively than you were before going on the trip.
Travel Improves Problem-Solving Abilities
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are much-needed to increase productivity in the corporate realm.
Travel puts a person in so many new situations. These situations increase cognitive flexibility as an individual is pushed to seek a new solution for a problem that they haven’t faced in the past. A language barrier could further contribute to the pursuit of a creative solution.
Going on a trip will also fine-tune a person’s communication and socialization skills – two vital essentials for those who want to excel at the workplaces.
Finally, there’s some research suggesting people do better problem-solving when their stress levels are down. Chronic stress at the workplace has become such a serious issue that any solution bound to relax workers is welcomed.
Going on a Trip Helps Generate New Ideas
Do you recognize the feeling of being stuck? Does every single day at the office look like the previous one? Most people on the brim of burnout know exactly what this means.
Stress depleted professionals from new ideas and creative initiatives. They’re way too exhausted to think creatively and instead, they rely on shortcuts.
A trip can boost creativity and help for the generation of new ideas. Even if you take a brief weekend adventure, you could come back to your professional life full of new suggestions and concepts to test out in real life.
A change in one’s typical environment is one of the biggest catalysts for the generation of new viable business ideas. You don’t have to focus actively on coming up with an innovative solution for a problem that you’ve faced for some time. Freeing your mind and enjoying the experience, however, can result in a creative flash of brilliance that will inject some fresh ideas into stale business concepts.
Travel Makes You Feel Younger
Every single trip is an adventure, even if you’re not going to a distant location.
A trip often feels like it stretches time. A week-long trip to a country that you’ve never visited in the past could feel like a month. There’s a simple reason for the phenomenon. You’ll be going through brand new experiences and collecting memories that could last you a lifetime.
Researchers have found out that an adult’s sense of time is more compressed than that of a child. Travel to new places, however, can equalize the experiences of kids and adults. From a neurological standpoint, travel turns back time and can result in a more youthful demeanor and self-perception.
Needless to say, feeling and thinking in a more youthful way can both impact productivity positively. There will be some freshness you’ll uncover, freshness you probably didn’t even think you had in you.
Some Time for Self-Reflection
Not only will travel sharpen thought and strengthen creativity, it will also provide some time for much-needed self-reflection.
People who take time off work benefit from a chance to think about their performance and self-reflect in a neutral environment.
When you’re completely immersed in your work, you’ll find it impossible to detach and examine your performance and the growth potential of the career opportunity. Looking at it from a distance will reveal things you would have never considered in everyday scenarios.
Some self-reflection is essential to determine whether you want to keep pushing in that very same direction or if it would be better to try something new. Whichever option you choose, you will be pursuing it with a lot more vigor when you get back to the office.
Travel is inspiring and fun. It relaxes the mind and the body. It gives people a chance to collect new experiences and friendships. All of these result in a high level of happiness and personal satisfaction.
Productivity is not tied to long weekly work hours. It’s one’s capacity to handle the work that needs to be completed within a specified time frame. Getting all of the work done within the shortest time period is a skill that only a few have mastered. If you want to join this group of people, you should definitely consider taking a break from work and traveling much more often.
