Clark Howard

Why you should add an extra day to your next vacation

After spending a wonderful week of rest and relaxation, you arrive home from vacation and start going through the to-do list of tasks you need to accomplish before going back to work.

Sound familiar? Then maybe you need to change the way you plan your vacations!

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Give yourself an extra day at the end of your vacation

I used to work with a woman who would come back to town on a Sunday after a week-long vacation, but she would never return to work on Monday morning — that was her time to mentally adjust.

Instead of forcing herself to get right back into her routine, she used Monday to prepare for the return to work on Tuesday.

Think about it this way: If you’ve ever caught a red-eye and planned to go to work after you landed, you were probably worried about the flight being delayed and struggled to get through the day because of jet lag.

But wait, wasn’t the vacation meant to recharge your batteries? The last thing you want to do is burnout on your first day back!

When the website Lifehacker recently wrote about this strategy, it sparked quite a debate. Some commenters said they've always added a 24-hour buffer to their vacations, while others wouldn't want to give up an extra day of PTO.

For those people, returning home a day earlier — shortening the trip — may be an option to consider.

What do you think? We asked Clark’s Twitter followers if they’ve ever added an extra day off to their vacation to give themselves time to relax. Here are the results:

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