Table of Contents
It’s time for my yearly summer break and the right time to enjoy the summer vacations with my family. How about you – are you planning one too?
Why should you have a summer break? How should you prepare yourself? What would you do in the summer vacation?
These would be some of the questions in many working minds – especially of bloggers and workaholics!
I know not everybody likes to take a summer break. Some people can’t afford to take one even if they want to, due to the work overload, responsibility, or monetary reasons.
But I’d say – if you can, you should. 🙂
My thoughts are very clear about summer breaks. For me, this is the time to have real quality time with my family.
For that to happen, I really need a BIG break from blogging!
No, no. I don’t hate blogging, nor do I have a ‘blogger’s block’. In fact, I love it so much that I just want to go on and spend all my time blogging.
You see, that’s the main problem!
What really happens is that I tend to go overboard sometimes and shove my personal and social time into the work furnace!
However, each year, this summer break comes as a boon for me and allows me to take a break from blogging. It helps me to take a break and have a perfect work-life balance that is so essential.
So, I’m going to have a BIG summer break this time, to enjoy with my family. What are your plans?
I have taken a summer break each year, as most of you know, but I’ve always carried my work with me. That isn’t really a break! However, this time I intend taking a good time off.
In addition, I’m going to take a hard stand and really adopt a no-work policy, which includes not being on social media too!
Now, that’s really a challenge, isn’t it?
Let’s talk about it.
“In matters of healing the body or the mind, vacation is a true genius!” ~ Mehmet Murat ildan
Why Do We Need Summer Vacations
Some of you might think that summer vacation is a term closely related to school education.
For schools, the length of the summer vacation varies from country to country. In my country, the school summer break is for about 4 weeks or 2 months.
Some schools have it extended up to 6 weeks, especially where it gets very hot during the summers.
There are good reasons to have a summer break in the schools, which also are almost the same for everyone else.
The 3 good reasons to have a summer break are:
1) For schools, it helps prevent over schooling and saves children from depressions, nervous disorders, anxiety, and burden. For bloggers and workaholics, a break during the summer prevents burnout and refreshes them.
2) In many equatorial and southern hemisphere countries, it saves kids from over exposure to the heat and sun. In some places, like my own, the temperatures rise up to nearly 50 degrees Celsius or 122 degrees Fahrenheit! It’s almost like being in an oven!
3) The family gets an opportunity to travel together as a unit. This is one of the best bonding times for the family, and a time to meet the extended family too.
DO READ: 8 Reasons Why Holiday Fun Recharge You
Bloggers and workaholics in any discipline need such summer breaks for more reasons besides the ones mentioned above.
Sometimes you just get fed up of working endlessly, or the work gets too demanding and you need motivation to cope with it. It just becomes too overwhelming at times!
That is the time when you need a break.
Yes, I’ve written about break earlier too – I wrote a post about taking a blogging break just before the winter vacations, when I took a few days off.
So, its break, break, and break time! These are so important in maintaining your continuity of work.
My main aim to take a summer break is to take care of my health, give time to my children, get the family bond together, and possibly travel to a few places.
“A vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work.” ~ Morris Fishbein
How to Prepare For a Summer Break
I’m not taking this summer break casually – but almost literally!
Summer is the time when your productivity is at the lowest. It is when you must leverage more of your time by devoting it to develop the personal and social aspect of your life.
That’s because most of the time during the year, you’re busy working on the professional aspect of your life.
No doubt, professional development is essential and you need to make money to survive. Nevertheless, you also need to balance your work and life.
So, if you’re a blogger or workaholic like me, do the following to prepare for your summer break.
1. Write a post about taking a summer break. You must do that so that your blog community members and readers are not disappointed when they visit your blog and don’t find a new post.
2. Use the vacation autoresponder of your email service. Since I use Gmail, I’m going to set up a short message intimating everyone that I’ll be replying after I return from my summer vacations.
3. Convey the same message on social media. You may actually learn to wean off from the social media or reduce the time you spend on the social networks. (I wonder if I can ever do that!).
If you wish, you may keep posting occasionally about how you’re enjoying your summer break, just to keep in touch with your fans and keep your social account active.
There is absolutely no harm visiting a few blogs occasionally, as and when you get time, just to keep in touch.
Even if you don’t, I am sure all your blogging friends won’t forget while you are gone, and will understand the reason for your absence. Am I right?
However, just make sure that you aren’t on social media as much as before, because that would be getting back into your old routine and you’ll miss enjoying your time with your family, friends, or spouse.
If you work in an office, you might want to hand over the charge or responsibilities to your colleague. Make it clear to the people in your office or company to contact you only in cases of emergency.
MUST READ: Fun Things To Do In Your Holidays
That’s it. Now, you’re all set to embark on your break without having to worry about anything.
“What do I want to take home from my summer vacation? Time. The wonderful luxury of being at rest. The days when you shut down the mental machinery that keeps life on track and let life simply wander. The days when you stop planning, analyzing, thinking and just are. Summer is my period of grace.” ~ Ellen Goodman
What to Do During Your Summer Break
Let’s first talk about what you should not do when you’re on a vacation.
- DO NOT open your laptop or hook on to your iPhone or iPad to read your mails.
- DO NOT reply to messages and answer the comments. (All this is a reminder for me and very tough for me to do!)
C’mon! You’re on a vacation and this is not one of your casual break. You’re supposed to completely cut-off from your work.
Avoid taking your business calls as they might get you glued to your mobiles or smartphones when your family wants you to be with them.
However, you can do the following things that may bring a happy and positive change in your life.
a) Sleep early – get your full sleep quota! More than anyone else, this is a reminder to myself. The summer break will allow me to get back to a healthy sleep routine.
b) Get up early and enjoy your morning walks that you might have missed all this while. Take up exercises again and practice meditation – doesn’t matter if you’re holidaying as you can indulge in these activities anywhere you are.
c) Have fun, watch movies, party out, go for picnics, or do things that make you feel free and light. Cherish and ingrain memories, as these will keep you rejuvenated for a long time.
d) Socialize, not virtually – but in the real world! Go and meet people, take up new hobbies or pick up the old ones, play your favorite game or sport – just don’t sit with the TV, computer, mobiles, and other gizmos!
e) Take this opportunity of a summer break to help at home, help other people, or do some social work.
This list is not comprehensive by any means. I want you to add to it.
If you want to know more about the do’s and don’ts of taking a summer break then read this article on Huffington Post.
What do you think you can do in the summer break that will recharge you and make you happy?
Remember that like smoking and sitting, workaholism too might be killing you. Americans need the vacations the most, read this to know the reason, though sadly they rarely take one.
“I still need more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently.” ~ Ernest Hemingway
Some Fears Bloggers Have If They Take A Summer Break
Being a blogger myself, I can well understand the fears that run through their minds or the guilt if they don’t work and take a break during summers, or anytime for that matter.
Many bloggers fear that they may lose blog traffic, regular visitors, or site rank if they stop blogging. But does that really matter so much?
I am sure you can recover the rank, traffic, and visitors, once you are back. You would be more focused and productive, and of course, full of energy to take charge.
If you believe in building relationships with fellow bloggers and have understanding friends in the Blogosphere, they would always be by your side because they too take breaks.
Do you stop visiting their blogs once they return? No, you do not.
Instead, you welcome them back, ask them how their break was, and resume your visits from the very same day, isn’t it? So, they would do the same with you.
However, if you still have doubts, then it’s up to you and your priorities. I’d give priority to my family, at least when my kids are also having a summer break at school.
As a blogger what you can do, as many others do, is to schedule your posts in advance for the days when you’ll be taking a break or vacation.
However, that way you may not be able to respond to the comments or promote your posts, other than the automated ways.
Not to mention the overload of comments, notifications, mails and messages piled up once you are back! I used to do this until last year, but never again.
I realized that I was still opening my laptop, replying to the comments, making my regular visits, promoting my post. So where was the REAL break?
While I did all that, I was not really being ‘present’ with my family. I was nether enjoying my summer break, nor fully into blogging.
That is why I preferred to give a complete break to my blog this time and really take it easy. I think I deserve it, don’t I?
My Blogging Break
I wouldn’t be taking a really long break this summer. Instead, after my break for about 2 weeks, I will be back and working on the blog in the background and making some important changes.
I cannot do this when I blog, and I am sure you understand that to move ahead and make changes, you need time, which I plan taking out during this little break.
I might even send newsletters to my blog email subscribers and keep them updated on the latest. So, if you aren’t on my list yet, subscribe now to keep in touch!
Not to mention, that even my husband would be joining hands and collaborating with me to make this blog better.
I hope you know that he wrote his first post on this blog recently on Father’s Day, just in case you missed it.
I will be around for a few more days to catch up pending work and the comments, and then leave on the 16th of June. So, if I don’t visit your blogs or respond to your messages and emails, I hope you understand. 🙂
Watch out for my next post on 8th July! You’ll have some surprises, new things on the blog, and a totally different me when I return. 🙂
Until then, happy blogging and happy holidays – but you can always visit the old posts that you’ve missed and comment there.
Do also take your much deserved summer break – you need it too!
Over to you –
What are your plans for this summer? Are you planning to take a summer break? Have you planned something special for this year’s summer vacation – share with all of us!
Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos