I know you're busy with work, but you also need to take some time off to recharge those batteries. So, should you plan one big vacation for the year? Or should you take multiple short vacations throughout? Quantity can sometimes beat quality.
First and foremost, regardless of how you use your vacation days, you need to be using them, and soon. The longer you put off your time off, the worse you're making things for yourself. One 9-year-long study published in Psychosomatic Medicine suggests not taking at least one vacation a year may increase your risk of mortality due to heart disease. So, not only are you killing your joy, you're possibly killing yourself. Give yourself a break, folks. When you should take those breaks, however, depends on a few factors: how many days you have available to use, what activities bring you joy, whether you have a family or not, and other variables come into play.
Because of that, there's no perfect formula that works for everyone, but there are still a few things everyone can try to shoot for. We know that in terms of maximizing relaxation, you should aim for vacations that range somewhere between 7 and 11 days long.
That gives you enough time to let go of your stress at work, completely loosen up and achieve full-on calm. That above-mentioned study also recommends you space out your vacations evenly instead of using up all of your days at once. 8 days might sound like a lot for someone who only gets 10 days of vacation a year. But if you frame them with weekends, you can manage two evenly spaced 8-day vacations a year. If you have 14 days of paid leave, that's almost three separate 8-day vacations you can use to split your year into thirds.
As tempting as it might be to use all your days to take one long summer break, your overall goal should be to achieve the perfect balance between length plus joy and frequency.
Vacation frequency is important because planning multiple breaks throughout the year means you always have something to look forward to. Planning things and the anticipation that comes with it tends to make us happier. If you only take one long vacation every year, the excitement builds much more slowly and seems so far off that it can actually lead to feelings of despair.
译文
我知道你工作很忙，但也需要抽些时间休息，给自己充充电。那么，你是该计划一年一次的大长假，还是在全年安排多次短假呢？有时候，数量也能胜过质量。
首先，也是最重要的一点，无论你怎么安排假期，都必须得休，而且宜早不宜迟。休假拖得越久，对自己越不利。《心身医学》期刊发表的一项历时9年的研究表明，每年若不至少休假一次，可能会增加因心脏病死亡的风险。所以说，这不仅是在扼杀生活的乐趣，甚至可能是在危及生命。各位，给自己放个假吧。不过，具体什么时候休假，还要取决于几个因素：你有多少天假可休、哪些活动能让你感到快乐、是否已成家，以及其他一些变量。
正因如此，并不存在适用于所有人的完美方案，但仍有一些目标值得每个人去努力争取。我们知道，要想达到最佳的放松效果，假期时长最好安排在7到11天之间。
这能让你有充足的时间卸下工作压力，彻底放松身心，获得彻底的宁静。上述研究还建议将假期均匀分散，而不是一次性休完。对于一年只有10天假期的人来说，连休8天听起来似乎挺长。但如果和周末连起来休，你一年就能安排出两次间隔均匀的8天长假。如果你有14天带薪年假，那就差不多能凑出三个独立的8天长假，足以将一年平分为三段。
尽管把所有假期都攒起来休一个长长的暑假十分诱人，但你的总体目标应该是实现假期时长与乐趣同休假频率之间的完美平衡。
度假频率很重要，因为全年安排多次休假意味着总有值得期待的事情。筹划安排以及随之而来的期待感往往会让我们更快乐。如果每年只休一次长假，兴奋感的积累会缓慢得多，而且感觉遥遥无期，甚至可能让人心生绝望。
