A Surprising Way to Make Weekends More Refreshing

As summer begins in the United States, and children get time off from school, offices get a little more sparse, and more people start fantasizing about the beach, a vacation mindset is not hard to find. Unfortunately, however, many Americans don't take all the vacation days that they are owed. This is a pattern that can easily become a vicious cycle: The more vacation days people leave on the table, the more the culture of the office turns toward that behavior being the default, and the more anxious someone might feel if they were to be the outlier and actually use all of their leave.

But we know that breaks are necessary from a mental health standpoint; time off from work can help prevent burnout. Quality time with loved ones, exploring new environments, getting away from the minutiae of day-to-day chores, and trying new recreational activities all bring additional benefits. So, vacation time is definitely worth seeking out.

But of course, it's not always realistic—and often that has nothing to do with leaving vacation days unused. Maybe you aren't granted so many vacation days, or any at all. Maybe finances prohibit taking time off in other ways, as overtime hours are important to your personal bottom line. Maybe traveling is not a possibility due to health issues, or conflicting schedules within your family mean that you are never all off of work or school at the same time.

The good news, though, is that sometimes a plain old weekend can bring mental health benefits—if you treat it like a vacation.

Research appears to back this up. In a study led by West, Mogilner, and DeVoe of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, half of the participants were told on a Friday to treat their weekend like any other weekend, and half were told to treat it like a vacation. How the participants interpreted those instructions was up to them; they were free to spend the weekend however they wanted.

When they returned to work on Monday, those who had been assigned to take on the vacation mindset scored higher on happiness measures, even when the amount of money they spent was controlled for.

A follow-up study expanded the number of participants and tracked how happy they were throughout the weekend, along with what they were thinking and doing. And indeed, the people who had been instructed to have a vacation mindset did spend their time slightly differently than the people who were in "normal weekend" mode: The former did less housework, ate a bit more food, and spent more time in bed with their partner. But what seemed to drive the happiness difference most was not these subtle shifts in behavior; instead, it was the attitude of mindfulness, attentiveness, and presence that they gave to even "normal" weekend activities.

So, it seems that happiness is boosted by savoring. Pausing, slowing down, and having a stance of gratitude for the present moment have always been at the heart of mindfulness, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the outcomes of such a mindset are quite positive. But to have this intervention make such a difference in study participants going about their everyday lives, and being able to establish a causal relationship with a study that was an experimental manipulation rather than simply a correlation of how people already behaved, is significant.

Of course, the better this vacation mindset works as an intervention, the more it could wear off if you did it constantly. The very definition of a vacation is that it is a break from the usual grind. If you tried to treat every single weekend like a vacation, it might make it harder to savor any individual one, as the specialness might start to wear thin (and the laundry may never get done).

But the next time you have a free day, or even just a a free hour, think about ways to savor it and view it as a break from the ordinary. It just might make you feel better, even once you're back at work.