How to take a vacation work day

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A beer, a church key, a MacBook pro, and a hammock.

Setup for a vacation work day.

I’m generally good at shifting my mind away from work while on vacation—for about eight days. By day nine, I’m starting to get antsy about making money again. A solution that’s worked for me? A vacation work day. Here’s how to work effectively on vacation:

  • Do it on a Tuesday. The schadenfreude of relaxing on a Monday while everyone else heads back to work is delicious.
  • Be just as disciplined with your time as on a regular workday—you’re burning vacation. Set goals, give yourself deadlines for each, and get things done.
  • Work on arrangements to hit the ground running when you return. Yesterday I, for instance, looked through all my recent meeting notes to determine talking points for networking coffees and lunches I will set up for the week of my return.
  • Assemble the right equipment as shown in the photo:
    1. A local beer, in this case from Woodstock Inn Brewery in North Woodstock, NH.
    2. A church key to open the beer, made by a local artisan from a railroad spike.
    3. A MacBook Pro, which has a high-quality screen easily viewable outside.
    4. A hammock.

Do you take vacation work days? Let me know in the comments.