With the holiday season fully upon us, no doubt you have made a gift list for the loved ones in your life. However, what do you plan to gift yourself? While new clothes and fancy toys are always fun, why not give yourself a gift that improves your health and leads to greater connection opportunities. It is the simple act of taking time off.

In an article for Psychology Today titled, The Importance of Taking a Break from Work, clinical psychologist Monica Vermani explores the reasons why taking time off of work is a health care prescription. She starts the article with the sad fact that most Americans fail to take their allotted vacation time.

According to a recent Pew Research survey, 46 percent of employees take less time off than their employer offers. In 2022, according to Qualtrics research, American workers left an average of 9.5 vacation days unused. Recent Canadian statistics paint an even bleaker picture, with just 29 percent of employees taking full advantage of paid time off.

That’s not all. In a 2023 ELVTR poll of 2,300 North American employees, most reported working while on vacation. Many also reported that weekends and nonworking hours are far from off-limits.

This failure to disconnect from work can lead to burn-out and other health issues. Therefore, Vermani advocates for taking a true and complete break from work. She points out that doing this is vital to your mental health.

The value of taking that postponed vacation and setting reasonable boundaries around minimizing communication with work colleagues outside of working hours are many, including stress and burnout prevention, gaining new perspectives on workplace stressors, improving mental and physical health, and improved sleep. Furthermore, vacations can be especially effective at raising levels of happiness, making time to reconnect with family and friends, and exploring locations and activities that foster joy and inspiration. Vacation time is also known to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Time away from the daily grind also expands our creative abilities.

She then shares why setting heathy boundaries is important to everyone.

Our time and energy are valuable—and finite—assets. At the end of the day, it is our responsibility to build healthy boundaries around our finite resources. Building healthy boundaries is all about prioritizing our mental and physical health, well-being, and needs, and building awareness of the causes and signs of workplace burnout, including trouble concentrating, exhaustion, irritability, a decrease in productivity, and physical symptoms, like headaches, muscle aches, gastrointestinal issues, and changes in sleep routines.

To learn more, including her six steps to creating a healthier work/life balance, please read the rest of the article. In the meantime, it is not too late to schedule that holiday vacation. Whether it is a trip out of town or staying home, either way make sure you enjoy some much-needed downtime.

Have you ever checked your phone for a social media update in the middle of a meeting? Or started looking at news headlines in the middle of a group lunch? Or got distracted by unimportant texts while doing deep work on a project?

It is very easy to be drawn into looking at our phones. This can lead to unproductive behavior and sloppy work. A recent article by Liz Fosslien on the Pocket website wonders why we have allowed these habits to become socially accepted.

I used to do nothing in the face of indiscriminate gadget use. Now, I’ve come to believe that doing nothing is no longer O.K. Staying silent about bad technology habits is making things worse for all of us.

How do we as a change these habits to make them less desirable? Perhaps we need to develop what investor Paul Graham calls “social antibodies.”

He uses the example of cigarette smoking: smoking in public became taboo over the span of just one generation after social conventions changed.

Like cigarettes, our personal technology use can become a bad habit. People enter a zone when they use their gadgets. Checking email or scrolling through Facebook can be intoxicating and disorienting. Tech makers design these products using the same psychology that makes slot machines addictive. The variable rewards built into apps make time pass quickly and can make people oblivious to what’s happening around them.

How can we build up social antibodies in the workplace? One way is to set up well articulated standards.

The best way to prevent this waste of time is for someone senior to mandate a “no-screen meeting.” In my experience conducting hundreds of workshops, the discussions declared device-free are by far more productive. Setting expectations up front is equivalent to administering a distraction vaccine.

Learn more about how to build social antibodies by reading the rest of the article.