You’re on a sun lounger. Cold drink, good book, nowhere to be. Your phone buzzes with a work email. Before you’ve even thought about it, you’ve picked it up and, somehow, you’re working again.
Sound familiar? Most of us have been that person, tapping out replies poolside while the people we’re with wait nearby. I know I have.
The research is pretty clear: people who actually switch off during their holidays don’t just come back happier, they come back sharper, more creative, and more productive. So why is it so hard to put the phone down?
Your brain needs a rest too
You wouldn’t run a business without maintaining it. You wouldn’t drive a car without ever servicing it. But a lot of people treat their brain like it’s exempt from the same logic, pushing through exhaustion and calling it dedication.
That’s actually costing you. Your brain needs rest to process information and form new connections. When you’re constantly on, you’re not being more productive, you’re just running down the battery faster and quietly degrading the quality of your output.
At some point, the battery doesn’t just run low. It stops charging properly altogether.
No-one’s indispensable
A lot of people convince themselves that everything will fall apart if they’re not available. It’s worth asking yourself honestly whether that’s true, or whether it’s your ego talking.
If things would genuinely descend into chaos without you for a week, that’s not a sign of how valuable you are. It’s a sign that something isn’t working: either you haven’t built the right systems, or you haven’t trusted the right people with the right responsibilities.
The goal isn’t to be needed every minute of every day. It should be to build something that functions well without you, so that when you do show up, you’re at your best.
A break doesn’t have to break the bank
Right now, a lot of people are feeling the pinch. The cost of flights, hotels, and eating out has gone through the roof, and for many people a traditional holiday just isn’t on the cards this year.
But the most important part of any break isn’t the destination, it’s the disconnection. A week exploring your own city with fresh eyes, or even just creating proper boundaries at home where work simply doesn’t exist, can be just as restorative as two weeks abroad.
That’s become particularly important for anyone working from home. If your workplace is also your living room, switching off takes deliberate effort. Sometimes that means hiding the laptop in a cupboard. Whatever it takes.
Switching off is when the good stuff happens
You’ve probably noticed that your best ideas rarely come when you’re sitting at your desk trying to think of them. They come in the shower, on a walk, or somewhere in the middle of doing something completely unrelated to work.
That’s not a coincidence. When you step away and stop actively grinding at a problem, your brain keeps working on it in the background. The pressure’s off, the noise dies down, and suddenly you can see things clearly that you couldn’t when you were too close to them.
This is why so many people come back from a proper break with a fresh perspective on something they’d been stuck on for months. It’s not that the problem got easier. It’s that they finally gave themselves the mental space to solve it.
The people around you are paying for it too
When you’re physically present but mentally still at work, the people around you notice. Your partner, kids and friends are all getting a version of you that’s distracted, half-checked-out, and probably a bit irritable.
I’ve been guilty of this myself. Being in the room but not really being there, because part of my brain was still running through whatever I’d left unfinished. At the time it felt unavoidable, but looking back, it absolutely wasn’t.
The cost of not switching off isn’t just professional. It shows up in the relationships that matter most, and unlike a missed deal or a late email, those are a lot harder to recover.
Set yourself up properly
If the thought of being unreachable for a week genuinely stresses you out, do the work beforehand rather than compensating by staying glued to your phone throughout.
Hand over anything outstanding with clear notes. If you absolutely have to be contactable, set a specific time each day to check in and stick to it. Be honest with the people around you about what you’re doing and why, so there are no surprises while you’re away.
You should be aiming to leave with a clear conscience, not a clear inbox. Your inbox will never be completely clear: accept it now.
Coming back
The return is where a lot of people undo the good work surprisingly quickly. You open your laptop to a week’s worth of emails, someone’s already booked your first morning solid with meetings, and within 48 hours the break feels like a distant memory.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Block out some time on your first day back to get on top of things before the world gets at you again. Delegate what you can. Ease in rather than sprinting straight back to full speed.
You worked hard to switch off properly. It’s worth protecting that for at least a few days.
One last thing before I go
Here’s a challenge before you close this down. Look at your calendar right now. When’s your next proper break? Not a long weekend where you’ll sneak a few emails in, but actual time away where you switch off completely.
If you can’t see it, put something in now. It doesn’t have to be expensive or exotic. It just has to be real. Because the work will still be there when you get back. The meetings will still happen. The emails will still pile up. But the opportunity to actually rest, to come back sharper and more present? That only happens if you make it happen.
On that note, this blog is taking a summer break too. We’ll be back later in the year, recharged and ready to go: see you then!