I rarely take time off of work because my job is pretty demanding and I don’t like to give myself unnecessary breaks.
I feel as though I work harder when it’s a continual daily demand, and I see no reason to treat myself to vacation time unless I have something big planned.
Yes, this strategy can be stressful, but I think it pays off in the end when you have a ton of vacation time accrued for a rainy day. That’s why it was so special for me to take a random day off last month, just to reward myself for a rough month. I was very excited to stay home and relax all day by myself, enjoying cool air conditioning rather than stomping around in the hot and humid air outside. I had my AC all cued up the night before, set to 67 degrees so I could get the best night of sleep possible. However, when I woke up the indoor air temperature felt horribly hot and muggy. I took a look at the thermostat and was unpleasantly surprised to find out that it was set correctly, but the cooling system wasn’t responding to adjust the temperature correctly. I spent some time toying with the temperature control settings, but never heard the AC unit kick into gear no matter how low I adjusted the temp. Eventually I had to call in a local HVAC shop, and spent most of my day waiting around anxiously and sweatily for them to arrive. So much for relaxing in my AC all day.