THE Eye had never heard of micro vacations until recently, when a friend said he had just taken one.
Eye had to ask – a micro vacation? Okay. Just what is a micro vacation? The first thing that came to mind was that it was a mini vacation. He explained that a micro vacation is shorter than a short vacation. How short exactly? A day or even two, he said.
This particular friend’s need for a micro vacation was set off by a string of events which involved difficult colleagues, heavy workload, and some bureaucratic red tape.
What finally prompted his decision to take a micro vacation was a near psychotic client who insisted my friend cater to her whims and fancies.
So he picked up the phone, made reservations at a local beach resort and headed off for two days away from work and routine.
Wanting to find out more about the term micro vacation, the Eye looked up the concept on Google. The time people spend micro vacationing varies from a few hours to a week.
In the United States, micro vacations are all the rage, particularly for those who hardly have time to breathe, let alone find time away from work for traditionally longer vacations.
Where do people go and what do they do for micro vacations? The Eye dug further into the depths of the www archives and found that what we used to refer to as “taking some time off” is now considered a micro vacation.
A day at the spa, a weekend away at a resort, or a couple of days balik kampung are all considered micro vacations. Old practices, fancy new name.
Why are micro vacations increasingly popular?
Well, the answer to the question, is a question itself: When was the last time you really took a vacation? As in, when was the last time you packed up, went to see a new place or headed off to a favourite haunt just to get away from it all, to refresh and rejuvenate, for say, more than two weeks?
Most of us have busy work schedules, are tied down by other responsibilities on the home front, and are committed financially. We seldom make taking vacations a priority in life.
And when we do take leave or a couple of days off from work, it is usually to handle things on the home front – running errands, house cleaning, running around for the kids, running around to pay bills, taking care of sick children or spouses or parents, and the list goes on.
More often than not, we go back to work feeling even more tired and hardly able to generate new ideas or be efficiently productive.
Micro vacations are popular among the younger generation – those below 40. Because they are basically just starting out in life, starting families and building careers, they have too much to do and have too many things to pay for.
So this is where micro vacations come into play. Micro vacations are ideal for those who cannot afford more than a week away from work and the home front. So hence a short getaway to chill out and do absolutely nothing routine — nothing that, under normal circumstances, we are bogged down with.
Micro vacations are affordable. Well, sort of, if you’re a smart traveller or good at hunting for great deals. These days we have the luxury of sitting in front of a computer to quickly hunt down great deals, and even online discount coupons for short getaways and spa or relaxation packages.
Plus, because micro vacations are shorter, you cut down on money spent for accommodation and food for long stretches.
Being in Malaysia, micro vacations are ideal because we have so many public holidays and we can plan a stretch off around these public holidays without worrying about not having enough leave days left for when the kids are sick, or when we need to take days off to settle household matters.
We all need some time off from work and routine. Management and motivational gurus recommend that we take time for ourselves to rejuvenate and refresh if we are to keep at the top of our game.
If we do not make that effort to do so, we are likely to burn ourselves out and crash.
So here’s wishing all of you Selamat Ari Gawai and, well, take the advantage of the additional public holiday tomorrow for a nice, relaxing micro vacation.