The rest of the world is just running on fumes

Our assumption is that we don’t have time to relax.

There’s simply no space to squeeze in any more slack into our lives, what with all of its endless exhausting obligations of work and worry.

But the irony is, relaxing is precisely what allows us to give more to life. Show me a man who can see clearly and act efficiently today, and I’ll show you a man who filled up his personal storehouse of calm yesterday.

The rest of the world is just running on fumes.

Gandhi’s soothing words come to mind:

I have so much to accomplish today, that I must meditate for two hours instead of one.

It’s the classic causality dilemma. The counterintuitive, infinite regression, time paradox of the chicken versus the egg.

Maybe the secret to getting more done is by spending more time doing less. That way, the energy we bring to our work is more important than the number of hours we’re doing it.

In the business world, we’re starting to see more and more companies coming to this conclusion, as illustrated by the increasingly common employee benefit of unlimited vacation.

Now, according to human resource management research, less than one percent of organizations are offering it. But it’s fascinating to see how that perk is affecting people’s energy level, mindset and retention rate.

One study of a large accounting firm’s employees found that for each additional ten hours of vacation employees took, their year end performance ratings from supervisors improved by eight percent. In the same study, frequent vacationers were also significantly less likely to leave the firm.

Doesn’t that sound lovely? Wouldn’t you love to work for an organization who believed that you weren’t designed to expend energy continuously?

I’ve worked for a number of companies in my post entrepreneurial life, and some of them offered the benefit unlimited vacation. It’s had a profound impact on my energy level and mindset.

Firstly, it makes me feel calmer in the micro. As my family and I are planning trips, vacations, holidays and other periods out of the office, my company never leaves me guessing about how many days off I have left.

There’s no soul crushing, guilt inducing vacation math that needs to be done.

“Sorry honey, but all my vacation days are gone, so we’re going to have to take the red eye on the busiest travel day of the year, go see all thirty of your relatives in one afternoon, and then jet back home just in time to return to work the next morning when we’re exhausted and have a barbecue hangover.“

Those exhausting planning conversations simply don’t happen anymore in my family. It’s glorious.

The second way unlimited personal time off has affected me is, it makes me feel calmer in the macro.

As I reflect on the big picture of my job, there’s no ambient anxiety about whether the company will ever give me a break. Because our founders know that human beings aren’t designed to expend energy continuously.

I can take a break anytime I want. That’s how it works. And you can’t buy that kind of peace of mind.

Now, skeptics say employers worry that adopting this unlimited vacation policy opens the door for employees to abuse it, harming the company’s productivity. While others have found that employees take less or roughly the same number of vacation days under the unlimited policy as they do when their time off is restricted, out of guilt.

But those are all user errors. If you’re running on fumes and you don’t have to be, that’s your problem.

Show me someone who can see clearly and act efficiently today, and I’ll show you someone who filled up their personal storehouse of calm yesterday.

That’s not slacking off, it’s slacking on.

Where could you introduce more slack into your life?