Tips for Creating the Perfect Daycation.

by

Keep Austin Weird

Home is where the…STAYcation is.

Once upon a time, in a blog-galaxy far far away, we debated the relative merits of staycations.

We blogged about money saved when we had no airfare or hotel costs.

We proclaimed shock as we discovered myriad things we’d never made time to do until we played tourist in our hometowns.

We luxuriated in the benefits of unhurried vacations at home versus harried excursions where, after travel, we enjoyed scant few days at our final destination.

We grew self-congratulatory with regards to how we savored our vacation days abundance (a full week!) without feeling the need to change our surroundings.

Years passed.

Our lives grew increasingly full.

We rapidly realized STAYcations were not enough.

We required sporadic booster shots of sorts if we wanted to maintain our relaxed staycations selves in the face of newly fast-paced lives.

With little or no vacation days remaining in our possessions a new concept was born.

A Day of YES! for big people types with some premeditation thrown in for good measure.

The DAYcation was born!

DAYCATION

Do not daycation spontaneously.

A psychological study about connection between vacation anticipation and happiness concluded the mere experience of vacation anticipation boosts happiness for 8 weeks (!).  Intriguingly, much of the benefit we humans glean from time away from regular life originates from the planning. It works the very same way with daycations.

Plan your 24 hour excursion ahead of time, talk about it with friends, share plans on social media–it’s good for your health! This premeditation also allows, should you choose, ample time to invite a friend to share in your daycation experience.

Live regular life–just tweak it.

I love my daily routine.

I adore how I spend my days and what I do.  Because of these facts my daycations contain the same sort of stuffs as my regular days–just with a twist.
Different yoga studio. Different sushi spot. Different nail emporium for a (more fancy) mani/pedi.

You get the idea.

Even if you’re not like I am and smitten with your routines it’s important not to pressure yourself to come up with 24 hours filled with novel experiences unless that really is part of the fun for you. It’s not for me and, through simply tweaking my regular life, daycation planning never becomes an additional task on my to-do list.

Unplug.

We’ve discussed how I suck (technical term) at detoxes and how they make me crave more more more instead of less less less.  As a result, when I say I unplug during my daycation I don’t mean it in the traditional sense.

I unplug from that which does not rejuvenate me and encourage you to do the same.  Do you tend to skim aimlessly through Facebook wasting precious time? Unplug. Do you flip through Instagram comparing yourself to others and feeling ‘less than’ as a result? Unplug.

Around here daycation-unplugging means I yank the technology cord from absolutely everything…except for text.

Don’t go balls to the wall.

Yes, I wanted an excuse to type the phrase “balls to the wall,” but yes I really mean this. Sure you want to squeeze all the enjoyment you can out of your 24 hour respite from responsibility, but be careful not to exhaust yourself in the process.

Think about the last vacation you took. Did you return feeling as though you needed a vacation after your vacation because you’d run yourself ragged? That’s not the objective here. Embrace your responsibility-free day. Enjoy your break from adulting. Don’t bleed into your margins and cram in every, single fun experience you can think of.

Not only will there be other daycations–I’m a firm believer in the notion all good daycations include eight hours of slumber before re-immersing in regular life.

And that’s it!

All you need to do now is pick a date and you’re daycation-ready for 24 hours of reality-free responsibility respite.

  • Have you daycationed before?
  • What tips would you offer the newbie daycationer?

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Comments

  1. I’ve never heard the term, but I’ve definitely done this in my own life. It’s time for another one again.

  2. I basically want my summer to be a long, drawn out day cation …and I have taken some steps to achieve that. I basically want to be AVAILABLE for any invitation at anytime. So far, so good but I made some big scary decisions in order to make it happen. So far, no regrets!!

  4. Sometimes months go by where there is no full day i can take, but there are occasional afternoons i know i will have off. Perhaps i need to plan something special for those times. Thanks for sparking the idea!

  9. I love the planning part of a vacation. When my sister comes for a visit we do stuff locally so I guess it is a daycation for me.

  12. You know what, I had an unplanned Daycation last week and loved it – hung pool side, listened to music, drank a beer before 5 pm and it was only a Tuesday!!!!

  13. Love this idea, Carla! I can see how the planning is such an important part of making it a REAL daycation–all too often, if I give myself a day off, I end up just hanging out, doing nothing (which isn’t all bad), because I can’t think of anything to do! I think Hubs and I need to do this at least once a month…thanks for the inspiration!

  14. I love daycations! In fact I’ve got one planned for later this week. I agree with you the anticipation is half of the fun of it!

  15. It’s such a strange notion for some, isn’t it? Only recently I realized the down time I needed, but was not getting serious about, was affecting my up time a LOT. Now when I put those days aside the goal is to be spontaneous and get back in touch with what I feel like doing. You’ve captured this in saying that there is no “right” way to unplug as long as you do it.

  18. I live in a resort community and we just retired and have mountains and trails and jeep roads and many many places to explore by foot and bike around our place- so every day is a vacation!

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