It has been a while since I have submitted an article to Project Wednesday, and honestly, it’s my own fault. With the holidays approaching in November, I haven’t sat down and thought about writing. I was too caught up in making up the work that I would miss taking days off in December to even think about submitting articles.

I was so caught up with the negative in preparation of the things that I enjoy doing, mainly vacation and time with family that I forgot to write about what I was focusing on.  So, as they say, better late than never.

Most of this hiatus, when I wasn’t overworking in preparation for vacation, I was also doing the things that I LOVE doing.  I find it therapeutic to purchase gifts, and wrapping them for my friends and family; neatly and organized, one paper type per person. (I think my type A is definitely at its finest here).  I baked, cooked and slept when I wasn’t spending time with my family and friends.

It was wonderful.

I did little to no work when I took off. Between Christmas and New Years,  I worked a few days and then just recently came back to work full time.  It was weird having time to do what I wanted to do, and truly enjoy the relaxation.

Since my job is so encompassing, I can’t leave it there and often ponder science at home with my boyfriend and dog. It’s hard for me to not work, or even think about not working.  I constantly carry and read science journal articles, whether I am commuting or just sitting at home.  I’m always thinking about how to fix a problem or help someone in the lab.  So that is what I worked on this vacation, resisting the urge to work on science, despite my guilt-ridden conscience over potentially falling behind in my research.  I followed the hard fast rule of only emergency work, and surprisingly, there were no emergencies during my time off.  This let me enjoy my vacation even more, since I wasn’t stressing about work.  I ate great food, enjoyed football bowl games, and finally de-stressed A LOT.

So next time you have vacation time coming to you and struggling to leave work at work, challenge yourself to do just that, LEAVE WORK AT WORK.

Make an emergency plan to evaluate if working in at that moment is necessary. Being the safety coordinator, my level was if there was a safety emergency or if I was told it was an emergency.  Set your email to away for the holidays and only check it once a day.  Trust me these little tricks will make for a more relaxing and more enjoyable vacation and next holiday.  We all need some type of a break occasionally from the stress of life, and sometimes making a resolution to take that break is just what you need to ring in 2018.