Who Wants to Take More Vacation Time Off?
VacationCounts.com is all about how to take more time off from work and time off from life. What will you do with all this extra free time? Be “on vacation” of course! We call it work-life-vacation balance. Whether you want to travel the world, enjoy greater time with your family, or enrich yourself and others, vacation time is your time to shine.
The VacationCounts blog covers the many ways in which you can take more vacations every year. Recent blog topics include:
- Tools to Track Vacation Days and Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Negotiating for More Vacation Days at Work
- Using Company Official Holidays to Go On Vacation
- Finding New Jobs with a Healthy Work-Life Balance
- Understanding HR Time Off Policy and Employment Benefits
- Vacation Life Hacks to Plan Better Trips and Travel Smarter
- Money Management to Afford That Dream Vacation
- Being More Productive to Create Time Off For Vacation
- Taking Career Breaks From Work to Explore the World
- Coordinating Vacation Times for Couples and Families
Optimize for Work-Life-Vacation Balance
To be able to take more vacation time off you need to learn to balance the three components – Work, Life, and Vacation. Thinking about plain-old “work-life balance” leaves out the best part. So which one do you wish to make your biggest piece of the puzzle? Vacation I’ll bet!
Employees, especially those working in the U.S., earn such a limited number of vacation days each year compared with the rest of the world. Hopefully you have at least the typical 2 or 3 weeks of vacation at your workplace. Do you take these days for granted or do you use every technique available to maximize every paid vacation day and holiday? What about weekends, floating days, flex-time, bonus days, and unpaid leave opportunities?
As I am all too familiar with, Americans often fail to use their accrued vacation days or wait until the end of the year and tragically lose out. I’ve also analyzed enough employment and labor statistics to know that workers in the U.S. are near the bottom in terms of the number of paid vacation days and the percentage of days taken. It saddens me to think that anyone would forgo vacation days in order to put in more hours at the office. Do these people feel they are too important at their job or won’t achieve their career aspirations if they take a vacation? If this sounds like you, VacationCounts is your wake up call.
Don’t Quit Your Job to Travel the World
Many of us get bitten by the travel bug, or likewise want to engage in sports, hobbies, family activities, volunteering, outdoor pursuits, education, or making a difference in the world. Wouldn’t it be nice to quit your job and leave all your responsibilities back home to devote yourself to your goals and desires? That would be nice, but…
The reality is that giving up your career path and taking your family on the road is not a realistic decision for the majority of us. There are certainly many enviable travel bloggers who follow this route (power to them), but most of us must earn a living, support a family, and save for the future.
So what’s the next best way to pursue your dreams and live a happy, fulfilling, and fun life? Embracing a vacation mindset every day of the year is one such answer.
Read More: 10 Really Good Reasons Why NOT to Quit Your Job to Travel the World
Remember to Track Your Vacations
Taking your vacation days for granted is easy when you have a busy work and home life. Don’t rely on payroll and HR to remind you how many paid days off you have accrued or to actually use them to take a trip. Track your own paid time off numbers to optimize your vacation usage throughout the year.
The VacationCounts Web App is a personal and private count of your time off plus a tool to organize all your past vacation memories. Now you can take charge of when to allocate PTO, keep tabs on your remaining paid time off, and measure your vacation successes. With VacationCounts you can sort and filter and view your lifetime of vacation totals and never lose track of where you stored all the docs, photos, itineraries, files, and notes about each trip.
Be a Part of the VacationCounts Take More Time Off Movement
Now that you understand what VacationCounts is all about, I invite you to explore our articles using the categories in the menu above. You are all invited to join up to inspire yourself and the important people around you to get, make, and take more vacation time. Vacations do count and nothing should stop you from maximizing your time off to enjoy life to the fullest.
Subscribe to VacationCounts Email Newsletter
The Take More Time Off newsletter is delivered several times a year only to subscribers. It includes the latest time off advice, exclusive work-life balance hacks, travel technology news, and motivation on how to take more time off from work and from life. You will get updates on the latest vacation and travel apps to be the first to know ways to help you track your vacation memories and paid time off benefits and take the perfect trip!
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About Travel Blogger and App Developer Scott @ VacationCounts
The VacationCounts site, blog, and app is part of an independent business launched by Scott Petoff as part of the Meliovation group. As a frequent traveler and advocate for making vacation time part of everyone’s work-life balance, Scott has been sharing his practical career advice, travel life hacks, time off management tips, and tools for tracking vacations since 2010.