Why is vacation is so good for you, and how to plan the kind your brain likes best

BY JESSICA STILLMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, INC.COM@ENTRYLEVELREBEL

For Inc.

Photo: Getty Images

I’ll confess, I wasn’t my most productive at work this week. It’s not my fault, though. Just about every email I sent out was met with an instant out-of-office reply announcing the recipient was on holiday. It’s pretty hard to interview people about work when they’re sitting on lounge chairs in the Caribbean.

Thanks to pent-up pandemic demand, a general feeling of exhaustion with life, and the YOLO vibe engendered by never-ending crises, it appears the whole world has decided to take a proper vacation this summer.

Good for all you entrepreneurs who are joining this trend. Experts agree that taking an extended holiday will not only substantially lower your risk of depression, but is also likely to be good for your productivity, creativity, and business (or career) in the long run.

But this raises an important question: how exactly do you plan a vacation that maximizes the psychological (and career) benefits of time off? A pair of neuroscientists recently took to The Conversation to offer a detailed answer.

How to “reboot your dopaminergic system”

The article, by European neuroscientists Juan Pérez Fernández and Roberto de la Torre Martínez, goes deep into the effects that time away has on the brain. Click through if you’re keen to learn the specifics about how your week in Paris or trip to Disneyland might affect your substantia nigra or ventral tegmental area.

But the essential takeaways require no specialized vocabulary, vacations really are great for your mental health and long-term performance, and a few small tweaks to how you plan them can ensure you get the most benefit.

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