I used to have more free time than I knew what to do with. That hasn’t been the case lately. I thought the two weeks of paid vacation I got during winter were enough. However, I recently took my first “real” vacation since the COVID pandemic. It took this recent trip for me to realize the importance of taking time off.

When I first came to Korea, I taught at a private academy. I was new and eager to help my small academy succeed. At one point, while waiting for a new teacher to arrive, I was teaching 180 hours a month. Yes, you read that correctly. My schedule was roughly

  • Kindergarten & adult classes from 9 am to 12 pm.
  • Elementary students from 2 pm to 6 pm.
  • Middle school and adult students from 6 pm to 10 pm.
AI-generated image of a tired male teacher in an English academy in Korea

I had a few periods off in addition to the two-hour lunch. But I regularly taught 9–10 hours/day. We also taught at an elementary school for 3–4 hours on Saturday morning. In the 90s and early 2000s, Korean schools had half days on Saturday. 

I was making decent money, but I was too tired to spend it. 

For 20 years, I never thought about the importance of taking time off

After a few years of bouncing around between different private academies, I got a job at a university. When I first started, the hours were better than my private academy jobs—but not ideal. We taught both morning and evening classes. My schedule was often split, which meant long breaks between classes, which started at 10 am and ended at 10 pm. At that time, we had Saturday classes at the university too. We were expected to teach extra classes during summer and winter breaks. These were organized by our continuing education center.

But as time passed, the schedule improved. Saturday classes became a thing of the past (for us and all schools across Korea). Our classes were scheduled so we had a four-day workweek. By the end, most instructors had classes three days a week. There were no more special classes during the summer or winter breaks. The importance of taking time off was never something I thought about.

A university student taking notes and looking at a laptop

I enjoyed my master’s degree, but it taught me a bit about the importance of taking time off

So for a while, I was teaching three days/week. I had about 5 months of paid vacation between winter and summer breaks. Even though I only taught three days a week, I still had lots of work to do, especially when I was teaching writing classes (I do not miss correcting and grading those assignments). And for the two and a half years it took me to do my master’s degree, I didn’t have much free time. Upon completing my master’s degree, I knew I had no interest in pursuing a Ph.D. I enjoyed my master’s program, and I was a much better student than during my undergrad days. But I’d had enough.

While studying, even on family trips, I took my netbook and textbooks with me. There was always an assignment to do or a paper I “should” be working on. Even during semester breaks, I was anticipating how much work I’d have to do the following semester. I’ll never forget the incredible relief when the library accepted the physical copy of my thesis. My master’s degree was officially over, and for the first time in two and a half years, I could truly “relax.”

Leaving my university gig, I had one huge concern

When I was let go from my university job and decided that I needed a change from teaching, I had several concerns. 

A young woman looking very concerned, perhaps contemplating importance of taking time off

But the biggest worry I faced was

  • Had my university gig ruined my ability to go back to a regular 9–5, 40-hour-a-week job with 2 weeks’ vacation?

I started my freelance career with a couple of part-time gigs that totaled 20 or so hours a week. I was busy building my website and studying about my new chosen career. Everything was new and exciting, and I was determined to succeed. But I still had a fair amount of free time. I was still practicing the guitar daily. I had time to relax, and weekends weren’t too busy. Overall, I was doing okay. I still wasn’t thinking about the importance of taking time off.

But those two gigs grew into almost 50 hours a week within a few months. I was working longer hours than I had in a very long time. I was still writing a blog a week, but I quickly realized I couldn’t keep that up. After a year of weekly blogs, I decided to cut back to a monthly blog.

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that as a remote worker, I’d have 2 weeks of paid vacation over Christmas. Christmas isn’t nearly as big a deal in Korea as it is in the West, but it was still nice to have the time off. I used that time to “get ahead” of some of my blogging and daily Instagram posts while getting a few more hours of sleep.

Close up of hands typing on a laptop

Starting to realize the importance of taking time off, I took my first proper vacation in 4 years

And for a few years, that seemed okay. But the problem with those two weeks off was that I never truly disconnected. I still kept an eye on our social media, and Teams was always open on my computer. Someone had to be “around” to deal with any emergencies, such as software outages. Those situations rarely occurred, but I still logged on daily and kept an eye on things.

Also, because it was the middle of winter, I wasn’t really interested in traveling in Korea. We may have gone on a 2-3-night ski trip on occasion. But for at least the first year, we were in the middle of the COVID pandemic, so our travel options were severely restricted. I wasn’t working, but I wasn’t truly on vacation. 

Due to personal issues and travel restrictions during COVID, I hadn’t been back to Canada since 2017. Recently, I was feeling burnt out at work, and I knew it was time to go home. My father lives in a very rural area. It’s where he grew up, not where I grew up. But I learned on previous trips home that where I grew up was no longer “home.” 

A house with a lawn, the place where I started to realize the importance of taking time off

I see fewer and fewer friends with each trip back. But I knew that would be the case this time. I knew that my father’s place was remote and that wherever we wanted to go was at least a 2-3 hour drive. We’d done most of the touristy things on our previous visits, so there weren’t many new things to do. But that was okay. That wasn’t what I needed. I was starting to understand the importance of taking time off.

If you’re going to take time off, do it right—disconnect completely

I think a fear many people have when going on vacation is, “But what if there’s a problem only I can solve?” I’ve often felt like that. But I’ve noticed several co-workers taking extended annual or parental leave. And guess what—the world keeps turning. Nothing grinds to a halt.

Before I left, I did everything I could to schedule emails to go out during my time off. That included preparing as much as I could so when I came back, I wouldn’t be behind the eight ball. I warned my team that I’d be logging out of Teams and that I wouldn’t be taking my laptop. I did give them a backup way to contact me. But only one team member had a simple (but important) question, which I was happy to answer.

Close up of hands texting on a smart phone.

I also prepped as much of my personal “work” as I could. I wrote a blog ahead of schedule and put it in WordPress. It was scheduled to go live while I was in Canada. My daily Instagram posts were already scheduled—I do those at least a month in advance. But I usually schedule stories weekly. I planned and scheduled stories a month in advance. Later (affiliate link) doesn’t let me add polls or questions to my stories, so I had to do that in Canada. But that only took a few minutes twice a week.

When I got home, my vacation wasn’t “completely” over

When I returned home, I sat down to resume my “regular” scheduling duties. Imagine my surprise (and relief) when I discovered I’d scheduled blogs and stories through the end of July. One-month-ago me knew post-vacation me would need some time to ramp back up. When I discovered that, I literally told my wife, “I love one-month-ago me!”

While in Canada, I didn’t worry about work. Without Teams notifications, I had no idea what was going on—but that was fine. Though it was quite a surprise to find out that a co-worker from another team had announced he was leaving while I was away. He finished up the Friday before I left. But I reached out to him on LinkedIn to wish him well when I heard the news.

People practicing putting on a putting green

We didn’t try to do too much in Canada. We typically had one activity/day planned. These included things like 

  • Checking out local cafes.
  • Going to the beach.
  • Golfing.
  • Visiting with family/friends in the area.

I didn’t sleep the days away—although there were several naps! But we didn’t wear ourselves out trying to do too much either. It was a very quiet, relaxing vacation, which was exactly what I needed. I finally truly understood the importance of taking time off.

I struggle with “downtime”—but the importance of taking time off can’t be overstated

Are you like me? I struggle with downtime. It feels like wasted time. I don’t have to be productive 100% of the time, but a day of lounging around and doing nothing feels like a wasted day. That’s part of the reason I do 100 push-ups, study Korean on Duolingo, and complete a few other things daily. If I do those things each day, at least I’ve accomplished “something” daily.

While in Canada, I didn’t do my whole morning routine. But I managed my 100 push-ups and Duolingo study to keep those streaks alive. But other than that, I took it easy. And I realized just how much I needed that—doing nothing. But I was in for a surprise when I resumed my morning stretching routine upon returning to Korea. I was amazed at how much flexibility I’d lost in just 2 ½ weeks!

Man sitting on a track sitting and stretching his hamstrings

When I had more free time than I knew what to do with, I never struggled to de-stress (except during my master’s degree). I was always exhausted at the end of a semester, but two and a half months of vacation was always more than enough time to unwind. With my new job, I thought my two weeks off at Christmas, along with random national holidays during the year, were enough—but they weren’t

I realized that sometimes it’s okay to do nothing. I don’t want to fall into a slump and become lazy and slothlike. But I’ve started to realize how much I need to take time for myself. In fact, this trip helped me decide that I need to make some changes.

I’m going to try to schedule my Instagram stories monthly, rather than weekly. It’s a small difference, but I appreciated not having that weekly task to do. I typically do 30 minutes of rowing a day, but I think I’m going to take a day off on either Saturday/Sunday. But most importantly, I’m going to use my vacation time better. The importance of taking time off has finally hit me.

Since my company no longer “shuts down” for two weeks over Christmas, I may look to adjust my time off. Rather than taking two weeks off over Christmas, I’ll look into taking more trips during the year. Even taking 3-or 4-day trips in Korea will help me relax. I’ve realized that time off while you’re at home isn’t truly time off. There’s always laundry, dishes, cleaning or projects to do. I also tend to use that time to work on my blogs and Instagram posts, so I’m not really disconnecting.

A smartphone with the words "I need a holiday" symbolizing the importance of taking time off

I don’t plan to take much unpaid time off, but I’ll look for opportunities to take an additional week off here and there. It’ll be a few years before I return to Canada. Traveling halfway around the world (it’s precisely a 12-hour time difference) requires 2–2.5 weeks. I don’t need to travel internationally, but I do need to look for opportunities to take time off that’s not at home. Even the occasional 4-day weekend trip within Korea should do the trick.

What about you? What was your lightbulb moment when you realized the importance of taking time off? Would love to hear your stories in the comments.

Subscribe to this blog or follow me on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Threads for more content and updates.

Published by demizach

Leave a Reply