Are You Taking Enough Time Off?

You’ve set your business and sales goals for the year: a prospecting goal, a closing rate goal, a revenue goal. But have you set a vacation goal? If you haven’t, you absolutely should.

Too many people don’t take enough vacations. One recent study found that 75% of Americans don’t take all of their paid vacation days, while another study found that nearly 42% of Americans don’t take any vacation days.

If you’re in either of those two populations, you’re hurting yourself and your sales.

It’s tempting to think that working more hours makes you more productive and thus, more successful. Yet science has conclusively proven the opposite is actually true. Dozens of studies have discovered that taking vacations:

• Reduces Stress
• Sharpens focus
• Enhances performance
• Sparks creativity
• Creates new perspectives
• Strengthens family relationships
• Boosts physical health
• Improves mental health
• Prevents burnout

Worried that taking more days off will hurt your chances of getting a raise and/or promotion? To the contrary. A study by Project: Time Off found that employees who take all of their vacation time increase their chances of getting promoted and getting a raise by 6.5% versus those who leave 11 or more days of vacation time on the table.

Still not convinced? Okay. In his book The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor makes the case for the link between vacations, brain health, and success, concluding: “When the brain can think positively, productivity improves by 31%, sales increase by 37%, and creativity and revenues can triple.”

All of this means, if you want to make more sales—and more money—you need to take more vacations. So I ask you again, are you taking enough time off?