You’ve been juggling those job offers, amping up your side hustle, setting up a home office or just slogging it out in the daily understaffed grind and wow, you could use a little time off to recover your sanity. So let’s do this. Here are five tips on how to plan a mental health day.
- Think plan. Try to know your pace. Don’t wait until you are at the verge of a mental breakdown before you schedule some down time.
- Think discipline. Make an appointment with yourself for this day off. This appointment is just as important as anything else on your schedule. Know in advance that something is going to come up that will seem easy to address if you just dump your mental health day (MHD). Don’t do it.
- Think private. Don’t tell anyone you’re taking an MHD. Do tell your associates that you will be out, “attending to personal business” or some other vague plan but just exactly what you are doing on your days off is no one’s business. If you tell your coworkers that you’re taking an MHD, someone is going to say, “I can’t believe _______ took a mental health day when everything is on fire around here.” Of course things are on fire. They will be tomorrow too. And the next day, and the next.
- Think Zen. Your MHD is not supposed to be crammed with errands, binge watching TV or surfing the internet all day. Get a massage, read a book, go for a walk, reconnect with an old friend but otherwise slow down for a day and set aside some quality time.
- Think Outside. Fresh air and sunshine can be just the right medicine.
If you don’t take a break sometimes, you break down. Plan a mental health day instead.
