Switch off - Relaxing during the holidays

The summer holidays are coming and we at the WIAS Magazine hope that you will all take a well-deserved break! While discussing our own holiday plans, we came across different ways of relaxing and recharging. Therefore, in this short piece we have collected some tips and tricks to switch off and enjoy the holidays to the fullest.

First thing´s first, before you go on holiday, make sure that you are not leaving an experiment or a coding project unfinished, as it will be very hard to remember where you left off. If you really need to, make sure to document everything well. I know this sounds obvious, but I think we have all been there on a Monday after the holidays, trying to trace back our own steps and disentangle some piece of code that was obvious to our past selves. Another thing that you can do before starting your holiday is setting your outlook status on unavailable, so your colleagues know that you will be offline.

Once it is time for the actual holiday you might find yourself struggling to not think of work. After talking to several PhD students (n~15) it seems that the easiest thing to do is to travel somewhere and break out of your routine. If you are exploring a new city or hiking in a beautiful landscape it comes natural to not think about work. One student even recommended getting a bit lost in a city and thereby letting go of planning everything. I think this is a fun idea, as our days are usually fully planned and structured anyways. It is nice to consciously let go of that every once in a while.

Sometimes taking holidays does not mean flying to a Greek island or going to Prague, but it is rather spending a few days in the city where you usually live. When it comes to relaxing, this kind of holiday appears to be more challenging for us PhD students. There is a strong temptation to just read that one article or answer that one email. Once again, one of the first suggestions is to create some physical distance. Sometimes it might even be enough to put the laptop out of sight and into a drawer. To break the work routine, it was also mentioned to turn off the alarm in the morning and take it easy. Then when it came to activities suggested, the diversity among us WIAS PhD students was very visible. Some of you suggested more artistic activities, such as singing, painting or playing an instrument. Others of you were more in favor of doing some sports and staying active, especially in connection with nature. Last but not least, reconnecting with family and friends, either over drinks or over a cooking session, were also popular ideas. Now you might think that these activities are diverse and have barely anything in common. That is at least what I thought, until one student pointed out the similarity. The similarity between all of these activities is that they take up all of our concentration. So, the solution is not to actually switch off thinking of work but rather take up all that space in your mind by something else and as a consequence not think of work.

As a result, even though this article started off as collecting tips and tricks, I think the main message is not to worry about consciously relaxing but to find something that you can really get lost in. With this final thought on behalf of the WIAS board members I would like to wish you a nice holiday! We will see you again in autumn.