The best way to use your vacation days

It has taken me three years but I think I finally have it, the perfect annual calendar. The below is assuming you have 15 days of vacation & 10 days of company holidays. 

The average person is only in the office 24% of their year, assuming they work 9 hour days, but still it is easy to get burnt out. Even if you love working like myself, the focus on the below is to give a variety of breaks, short and long. Don't let yourself burn out, the recovery could be detrimental. Here are a few tips I utilized when creating the perfect annual schedule:

> Love half days, you get twice as many of them, and they still keep you in your routine while giving you a break. These are especially helpful during busy times of the year when full days are harder to commit to.

> If you are taking a vacation, take a Friday off & a Monday off, that way you create two 4 day weeks and one 4 day weekend.

> I don't use vacation time around the holidays, usually there is adequate time given to travel, plus working around the holiday's in an office is usually a ghost town leading to a laid back day. 

> Try not to work 5 day weeks for an extended amount of time. Use a half day at the minimun to break up the week and give yourself a break. Remember the whole purpose of vacations are to rejuvenate, relax, and step away from your desk to focus on other areas of your life. 

Hailey Schultz

Best piece of advice to relate to any area of your life.

I just finished this book and have realized the #1 piece of advice that pertains to your personal life, work life, kids, future.....

"You must start with yourself."

Most people have called out the hypocrisy of others at one point in their life or another. Hypocrisy is one of those things that gets under my skin, but that I am guilty of as well. I can't expect others to be organized if I my desk looks like a teenagers closet, or expect my kids to get healthy if they see me eating Doritos every night with a layer of dust covering the exercise equipment in the basement.

"You must start with yourself" is the answer to every complaint, every question, every compliment. Be the person you want others to be, show them what they need to do, be the example and others will follow.

It is true, I have been told this many times throughout my life and finally at 27 it has sunk in. There is no need to judge or critique others when you have no control over their actions. But you can control yourself, you can mold yourself into the person you want to be, although it may take a lifetime. 

Everyday is another learning experience but control over your mind and body is what I believe to be the most important thing you should fight for. 

The most current challenge I am enduring is my sick dog. He is extremely needy at this point in his life, financially draining, and overall exhausting. But I am learning patience, compassion, and how to live on little to no sleep. Although my apartment smells like sick dog and old urine, meals are now frozen as I spend a good 30 minutes trying to figure out what Sam might eat that day, and bills are stacking up as vet appointments and pain killers are a must, I will come out of this just fine. I expect to learn a lot, and once I have figured out what it is that I have learned I will be sure to let you know. 

Hailey Schultz