Unplug

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Labor Day is an annual celebration of American workers' social and economic achievements. The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize workers' many contributions to America's strength, prosperity and well-being. Am I the only one who believes it's a tad ironic that we celebrate work by taking the day off?

Because our schedules are so busy, we often push noncritical tasks to the weekends. This means that we never stop working. Our advice this weekend is to stop. This weekend, take some time to unplug, relax and refresh. Psychology Today recently published an article about the long-term effects of all this constant stress and busy-ness on our mental health. People are more on edge, more stressed and quicker to inappropriate reactions and hostility because of the pace of our world.

This weekend, unplug. Whatever it is, it can wait till Tuesday. There are plenty of things that you can do to unplug and recharge. The key is to do something you genuinely enjoy. Here are some suggestions:

Sleep in — If you usually get up at 5:30 a.m. daily, turn off the alarm and see if you can sleep until 8.

Read a book for fun — hobbies, fiction, art, culture. Pick a book that you wouldn't normally use for business.

Visit an art gallery or a museum — admiring the creativity of others can be mind-expanding.

Take a walk — exercise has well-documented benefits. You don't have to go nuts; just take a walk or a bike ride. Get outside and enjoy some fresh air.

Appreciation journal — Spend some time thinking about and making a list of all the things you have in your life for which you are thankful. Often, we take our current situation for granted and only focus on the problems or the things we don't have.

Take a NONwork-related course or learn something that interests you outside of what you do for your career.

Surround yourself with people who make you happy and give you joy!

Our business isn't slowing down, and that's a good thing. There is always something more to do, something more to learn, more clients to help and more promotions to create.

Psychologists say we have a chronic preoccupation with what we aren't doing. We are so worried about what we are not doing that we can't focus on what we are doing and do it effectively. This weekend, we can worry about all the things we'll have to do next week and those we didn't get done last week, or we can enjoy some outdoor time camping, relaxing and spending time with friends and family WITHOUT our phones constantly buzzing, dinging and stealing our attention and our joy. This weekend, we encourage you to forget where you've been or where you are headed from a work perspective and relax, recharge and refresh. If you have some ideas about nonwork activities that bring you joy, we'd love to hear about them. Email us here.

Happy Friday!

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@rab.com. You can all so connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.