Work and travel burnout can be a real b*tch.
One moment you’re enjoying your trip (or at least chugging through a work trip without a hitch), and suddenly, you’re cranky, overtired, and hangry. This is what happens when we screw up our sleep schedules, drink too many margaritas, and get bloated from eating too much salt.
Travel (especially vacation travel and work travel) tends to dwell in the land of excess. We want to layer on as much fun, food, and experiences as we possibly can when on vacation — or networking, meetings, and team happy hours if we’re traveling for work.
Yet, our bodies aren’t built for all that unstructured work and fun.
Find out how to stay sane while traveling for work or pleasure by adding a little structure, some water, and a few green things to your trip.
Top Tips to Avoid Work and Travel Burnout
Back when I used to travel full-time, I would experience burnout consistently — even if I planned out my work, travel, and self-care schedules, eventually they’d end up forgotten about. Discarded. Routine-ah non-grata.
Work and travel burnout can suck the fun (or in the case of work, productivity) out of your trip. Which is why I try to abide by a few commandments on every trip I take, including:
- Move ‘yo body
- Stay grounded
- Keep things consistent
- Drink water & eat something green
- Stick to a sleep schedule
- Check in with yourself (or someone else)
- Don’t overbook yourself
- Expect the unexpected
Back when I used to travel full-time, I would experience burnout consistently — even if I planned out my work, travel, and self-care schedules, eventually they’d end up forgotten about. Discarded. Routine-ah non-grata.
Move ‘Yo Body
I feel like I tend to move my body more when I’m on vacation. Just naturally.
When I’m in a city, I walk around a lot. When I’m doing a beach vacation, I end up taking hikes, signing up for activities, and finding other ways to move around.
Even if my vacation is all about relaxation, moving around just feels good. And a long day lounging around at the beach just feels more satisfying if I’ve burnt off some energy beforehand.
Plus, studies show that exercise can help us build emotional resilience.
Which in turn may help keep us cool as cucumbers.
Stay Grounded
Do one thing each day that grounds you in your body. Whether it’s deep breathing, meditating (if you’re not into meditating, check out my list of meditations for people who hate meditating), yoga, a walk, or savoring (which can boost your mood in minutes).
Keep Things Consistent
The late TV travel host Anthony Bourdain used to stay grounded when he was traveling by heading to a jujitsu studio — first thing after landing in a new city. For whatever reason, jujitsu filled his cup and kept him present in his body. It’s also a great way to move your body.
This tip is super helpful for anyone that travels regularly for work (or often suffers from work and travel burnout).
It’s easy to just throw your regular routine to the wind, but routines offer us plenty of mental, physical, and health benefits.
One of the benefits of travel is trying new things and getting out of your routine rut; keeping one habit from your regularly scheduled program (drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning, meditating or practicing yoga for 10-to-20 minutes, writing in your gratitude journal or doing some deep breathing or biofeedback breathing before bed) can help ground you in your new surroundings and keep self-care practices at the top of your to-do list.
Drink Water & Eat Something Green
I’m not gonna lie, I’m really bad at remembering to drink water.
And when I’m at an all-you-can-eat buffet or a special-event restaurant? I’m not going to order the salad. It’s mac and cheese, steak, and martinis all the way for me.
But alas, one cannot run on pasta and cheese alone and avoid the eventual mad dash to that public bathroom (you know, that bathroom that you would never otherwise use because of the stench of death, no toilet paper, and a mystery liquid on the floor) unless you were desperate.
Drinking water and eating one green vegetable per day can help keep your digestion running smoothly, and it can also keep you from feeling overly tired or burned out. There’s also some evidence it can prevent the vacation blues.
I’m not saying don’t indulge in pasta and cheese and vodka at every meal while on vacation (I would never say that). All I’m doing is suggesting to add a glass of water and a green thing to that indulgent meal.
When I travel, I carry a flexible water bottle with me wherever I go instead of buying bottles of water. First, it’s reusable, so I’m not contributing to single-use plastic waste (which is highly frowned upon in South America and Asia). Second, I’m not lugging around heavy bottles of water wherever I go.
When I’m thirsty, I fill the bottle (at a restaurant, Starbucks, or bottle-filling station), and I’m good to go. When I’m finished, I roll up the bottle and carry it in my bag. I hate, hate, hate carrying a backpack when I travel, so I try to keep my all-day items to a minimum (or at the very least, collapsible).
Savor Your Experiences
When I’m traveling, it’s easy to forget to just take a breath and enjoy the experience.
So often, I’m worried about the next leg of my trip or that something might fall through, and I forget to just be in the here and now.
Savoring allows me to take a minute to enjoy both the good (and the not-so-good) stuff.
What is savoring? A mindfulness practice that can keep you in the moment, help you process negative feelings, and squeeze the most joy out of positive ones.
It’s easy to just throw your regular routine to the wind, but routines offer us plenty of mental, physical, and health benefits.
Stick to a Sleep Schedule
Okay, hear me out on this one. I get it: one of the big benefits of taking a vacation is catching up on sleep. Or staying up past your bedtime. Or, getting out of your routine rut.
But sticking to your sleep schedule can help you get more consistent sleep and it can help you keep your energy levels balanced throughout your trip. It will also help you readjust when it’s time to head back home.
Check-In With Yourself (Or Someone Else)
It’s easy to forget about your new #vacationburnoutgoals once you get to your destination. I mean, you had the best of intentions when you made these goals, but that was you before.
Before you realized your hotel had free mai tais every night before dinner. Before you slept in that one day and it felt. so. good. Before you discovered the only slot available for that once-in-a-lifetime spa treatment overlapped with your regularly scheduled exercise program.
It’s easy to talk yourself out of your burnout prevention program. And it’s even easier to not even realize you’ve gone so far down the throw-caution-to-the-wind rabbit hole until you’re already so far down that you can no longer remember what your routine even looked like in the first place.
That’s why it’s good to have someone to check in with during your vacation.
When you start feeling like you need a vacation from your vacation (or if you just need some support in sticking with your goals), you may want to phone a friend that will support you.
Sadly, our friends don’t always like to rock our boats, so they might not always support us in the ways we need. If you find yourself getting responses like YOLO or Live Your Best Life instead of the support you need, you may want to turn to a professional for help.
When I’m on vacation and I need a little burnout support, I message my therapist on Talkspace (or schedule a video call if I’m in a real mood).
She gives me the support I need and keeps me accountable.
I’m not saying don’t indulge in pasta and cheese and vodka at every meal while on vacation (I would never say that). All I’m doing is suggesting to add a glass of water and a green thing to that indulgent meal.
Don’t Overbook Yourself
I used to tell people this all the time back when I ran a NYC travel blog. The no. 1 mistake people make before booking a trip to NYC? Overbooking themselves!
Not only did people not factor in subway delays and weekend schedule changes, traffic, and sidewalk closures due to filming (yes, this is a thing in NYC!) — but even if the stars had aligned and everything had worked perfectly, they didn’t realize that their bodies simply needed to rest for a few minutes because no one was meant to walk 30,000 steps in a day without a dang break.
I truly think that most people don’t actually believe they can get everything done they want to do on an NYC vacation — they just want to believe they can get everything done.
Whew. I’m tired just from thinking about it.
My advice? Choose one activity per day and put it on your must-do list. Then choose one activity per day to put on your can-do list. Finally, add a third activity to your could-do list for each day.
Yes, you need to make reservations and buy tickets, and plan in advance. But giving yourself permission to let these plans go will keep you from having a full-on vacation breakdown.
My advice? Choose one activity per day and put it on your must-do list. Then choose one activity per day to put on your can-do list. Finally, add a third activity to your could-do list for each day.
Expect the Unexpected
When it comes to travel, you’re going to need to expect the unexpected. Something will not go as planned (which isn’t always a ‘bad’ thing!).
The driver you booked to ferry you from the airport to your hotel won’t show up. Your dream hike will get rained out. The clouds will roll overhead and that stargazing tour you booked will get canceled.
If you want to avoid work and travel burnout, you’re going to need to let that sh*t go. Get a backup plan. Heck, get 10 backup plans.
Or, accept it and move on. Sometimes the best moments happen when we don’t plan for them.
When your car breaks down in the middle of a field and you share a bottle of wine with your friend while waiting for the tow truck. Or when you get lost in Brussels and end up wandering into the most magical hidden plaza that’s all glowy and otherworldly.
Sometimes the unexpected can be the biggest gift we give ourselves while traveling. And we can’t accept it if we’re overplanned, overstressed, and overbooked.
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Disclaimer
Hey, hey! Just a few things before you leave… this post contains affiliate links, so if you buy something after clicking on a one, I might (fingers crossed!) just get a little commission. Good news: I only recommend products that I love! Which means you can feel good about all of my recs.
Also, you should know that I’m not a doctor. More importantly, I’ve never played one on TV. Always consult your doctor before taking any advice from me (or anyone else on the internets for that matter).