The six stages of holiday-making Two weeks off, but how many days of relaxation? Aug 13th 2026|4 min read   It’s summer, in the northern hemisphere at least, which means emptier offices and fuller airports. In theory, a holiday is a time to properly relax. In practice, there are several stages to pass through before that moment arrives, and several more to experience before you are fully immersed in work again.   1.    The preparation phase. You badly need a holiday. In your final couple of days before leaving, you complete your most urgent tasks, like tidying your desk. You tell people on your team that you trust them completely and in the same breath, that they should contact you if anything comes up, no matter how trivial. As a result, they don’t feel trusted at all. You think about setting up an out-of-office message and decide not to: it’s really not a problem to check your phone occasionally. As you leave the office, you think you feel a cold coming on. 2.    The relax-like-hell phase. You spend the first few days approaching the holiday like it’s work. You spend loads of time asking AI models for places to go that are off the beaten track. In a typical morning, you drive two hours to eat breakfast at a place recommended by ChatGPT which turns out to be closed, and then visit a museum devoted to the ancient craft of curing fish.   At lunch, you drink wine and then fall asleep. You think of this period of unconsciousness as time that could have been spent relaxing. You are acutely aware of time passing, your days of freedom slipping away. You pick up a book and instead of reading it, worry that you could be enjoying your leisure in even more leisurely ways. You feel very tense for someone on holiday.   3.    The letting-go phase. Meanwhile, you check your email every so often, and intervene in things you don’t need to. You get a couple of WhatsApp messages and are asked to join a call, and feel both irritated and pleased. Can’t you do it without me? You can’t do it without me! As you triage messages, sorting them into things that have to be dealt with quickly and those that can wait, you gradually realise just how much of what goes on each week a) doesn’t require you at all and b) has no lasting value. You start to ignore most messages; if it’s important, they will find a way to contact you. You switch on your out-of-office message.   4.    The delusional phase. Finally, you start to relax. You lie in a little longer. You don’t look at your phone quite as much. You realise that back in the office the weekly sales meeting is happening right at this very minute, and you laugh out loud at the smallness of your old life. Fairly soon, you start to lose your grip on reality. You think about moving to wherever it is you are, forgetting that you are enjoying yourself because the weather is nice and you are not working. You start trying to figure out how soon you can retire. You fantasise about working outdoors, perhaps in sea-kayaking or doing something artisanal to a dry-stone wall.   5.    The motivated phase. The end of the holiday is fast approaching. You realise that sea-kayaking gives you blisters and that the things you are best equipped to do don’t involve dry-stone walls. You start to look at emails again, but only the ones that matter. You feel motivated to return. You have seen how much time is spent on unimportant things and are determined to prioritise much more ruthlessly. You have some really good ideas about how to improve the weekly sales meeting.   6.    The recidivism phase. You return to the office full of vim. You look and feel healthier than your colleagues. Then you have the same conversation 800 times. “How was your holiday?” “Wonderful.” “Where did you go?” [Insert answer.] “What did you do there?” [Insert details.] You soon realise that no one is interested in where you went and start to make up responses. “Where did you go?” “Wakanda.” “What did you do?” “We visited the vibranium mines.” “Oh, I’ve always wanted to do that.”   It’s nice to see people. It’s good to have a sense of purpose. But you quickly revert to old habits. An empty calendar feels less like ruthless prioritisation and more like a public display of redundancy; the slots soon fill up again. When emails come in, you answer them indiscriminately. Your desk becomes more cluttered. You attend the weekly sales meeting and dimly recall that you once had an idea for improving it. Colleagues come back from their own breaks and you ask how their holidays were. You are not listening to the answers. They seem so well, so energetic. You think you feel another cold coming on. You badly need a holiday. ■ 度假的六個階段 兩週假期，但真正放鬆的又有幾天？ 2026年8月13日 | 閱讀時間 4 分鐘 夏天到了——至少在北半球是如此——這意味著辦公室空了，機場卻擠滿了人。理論上，度假是一個能讓人徹底放鬆的時刻；但在現實中，在那個時刻到來之前，你必須先經歷幾個階段，而在你重新完全沉浸於工作之前，還有另外幾個階段等著你。 準備階段。 你急需放個假。在離辦公室前的最後兩天，你完成了最緊迫的工作，比如整理乾淨你的辦公桌。你告訴團隊成員你完全信任他們，但緊接著又說，如果有任何事情發生，不管多麼微不足道，都可以隨時聯繫你。結果，他們根本感覺不到自己被信任。你考慮要設定「不在辦公室」的自動回覆信件，但最後決定不設：偶爾看一眼手機真的沒什麼大不了的。當你離開辦公室時，你覺得自己好像有點感冒了。 拼命放鬆階段。 你把前幾天的假期過得像是在上班一樣。你花了大量時間詢問 AI 模型有哪些遠離喧囂的冷門景點。在一個典型的早晨，你開了兩個小時的車去吃一家 ChatGPT 推薦的早餐，結果發現它根本沒開，接著你又去參觀了一間展示古代醃魚工藝的博物館。 午餐時，你喝了葡萄酒，然後睡著了。你把這段無意識的時間視為「本可用於放鬆」的時間。你極度敏感地意識到時間的流逝，自由的日子正在悄悄溜走。你拿起一本書，但沒有閱讀，反而擔心自己本可以利用更悠閒的方式來享受閒暇時光。作為一個在度假的人，你感到非常緊張。 放手階段。 與此同時，你隔三差五地檢查郵件，干預一些你根本不需要插手的事情。你收到幾條 WhatsApp 訊息，並被邀請加入視訊會議，這讓你感到既煩躁又高興。沒有我你們就辦不成事嗎？你們還真的沒我不行！當你對訊息進行分類 triage，將它們分為「必須快速處理」和「可以等等再說」時，你逐漸意識到每週發生的事情中有多少是：a) 根本不需要你；b) 完全沒有長遠價值。你開始忽視大多數訊息；如果真的重要，他們總會找到方法聯繫你。你終於開啟了「不在辦公室」的自動回覆。 幻想階段。 終於，你開始放鬆了。你睡得稍微久了一點，看手機的次數也沒那麼頻繁了。你意識到此時此刻，辦公室裡正召開著每週銷售會議，你對自己過去那渺小的生活發出陣陣會心的冷笑。很快地，你開始脫離現實。你想著搬到你現在度假的地方生活，卻忘了你之所以開心是因為天氣很好且你不用工作。你開始嘗試計算自己多久之後可以退休。你幻想著在戶外工作，也許是划海上皮划艇，或是對著乾砌石牆做些手工藝活。 動力階段。 假期的尾聲迅速逼近。你意識到划皮划艇會讓你起水泡，而你最擅長做的事情根本與乾砌石牆無關。你重新開始看郵件，但只看那些真正重要的。你感到有一股返回工作的動力。你看到了有多少時間被浪費在不重要的事情上，並決心要更狠心地排出優先順序。對於如何改進每週銷售會議，你產生了一些非常棒的想法。 舊病復發階段。 你滿懷活力地回到辦公室。你看起來、感覺起來都比同事們更健康。然後你把同一段對話重複了 800 次。「假期過得怎麼樣？」「太棒了。」「去哪裡了？」（插入答案）「在那裡做了什麼？」（插入細節）。你很快意識到根本沒有人對你去哪裡感興趣，並開始編造回答。「你去哪裡了？」「瓦干達（Wakanda）。」「做了什麼？」「我們去參觀了汎合金（Vibranium）礦山。」「噢，我一直想去那裡。」 能見到大家真好，擁有目標感也很不錯。但你很快就重蹈覆轍。空白的行事曆看起來不再像是狠心排序優先順序的成果，反而更像是公開展示自己是個贅員；日程很快又被排滿了。當郵件寄來時，你不加篩選地一一回覆。你的辦公桌變得越來越凌亂。你參加每週銷售會議，隱約想起自己曾經有一個改進它的好主意。同事們陸續休假歸來，你問他們假期過得如何。你根本沒有在聽答案。他們看起來那麼健康、那麼精力充沛。你覺得自己好像又有點感冒了。你急需放個假。■ --Hosting provided by SoundOn