Practice Management Alert

Rest and relaxation can improve overall work performance.

As practice manager you may find yourself helping your providers and office staff find time for vacation, but you may not make sure you are doing the same. While your plate is full, the practice won’t fall apart if you take a few days away from work to relax — and in fact, you might be a more productive and happier manager for it.

Not only is vacation time part of your compensation package, but it also has many benefits that will enhance or improve your work performance. Take a look at these proven reasons why you should unchain yourself from your desk and use your vacation time.

1. Regain Your Fitness

You can reclaim up to 30 percent of your fitness levels just by going on vacation, experts say. That’s because you’re more likely to get up and move around — whether you’re walking down the beach or hiking a mountain trail. All this movement boosts your circulation and gets your blood pumping, which ups your heart rate and immune system.

2. Restore Your Body

The 9-to-5 grind bogs down our bodies with stress and worry, but when you take a vacation, you give your body the time and freedom it needs to repair itself.

Bonus: Chronic disorders like migraines, back pain, and colds often disappear when you’re on vacation. This simple break from everyday pressure could even help you maintain lower blood pressure and fight heart disease.

3. Make Breathing Easier

City and in-office pollution build up in your lungs, causing your breathing to suffer. But your first deep breath on vacation is likely to start clearing out all the bad stuff.

Best: To really clear out your lungs and bloodstream, you need nearly three full days of pure, fresh air every few months. Try taking your vacation time as it builds up in the form of long weekends in low-traffic spots, such as the beach during low season.

4. Feel inspired

Long, repetitive workdays are the perfect way to kill your inspiration. When you visit places that move you or just take quiet time to focus on yourself, you’ll kick your inspiration into overdrive.

The best medicine when you need some inspiration? Sunlight, laughter, healthy food, exercise, and fresh air are all guaranteed to have you bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm, experts say.

5. Reconnect With Your Family

Do you relate to managers who say they don’t recognize or relate to their spouses or children anymore because they spend so much time at work? If yes, then you can’t put off your vacation any longer.

Relaxing and having fun together is the best way to reclaim intimacy with your partner and relate to your children. Not only will you rediscover what you have in common, you’ll build fun memories to rely on when things get stressful again.

6. Heighten Your Senses

Fast food lunches, cigarette smoke, pollution, and chronic colds all dull your sense of taste and smell — which can keep you from relishing what downtime you do have.

Try this: Schedule your vacation for the days or week following your most stressful time of year. This way, you complete your crucial duties just in time to recover with a relaxing weekend at the beach or a week at home with friends and family.

7. Improve Your Sleep

Every manager can relate to the insomnia or tossing and turning that comes with a high-stress position. But you can quickly restore your normal sleep patterns with a little time away from work.

Consider this: Get the most out of your vacation — spend it someplace quiet so you can rest.

8. Be More Productive

Seeing and doing the same things every day drastically decreases your brains’ ability to think creatively and operate at peak performance. However, it’s these qualities that make you a better manager and a more successful leader.

Good idea: Find creative ways to take a break at least once every few months to keep your brain, body, and work ethic in tip-top shape.