Work-life balance is important to achieve a healthy well-being and a happy state of life. Too much of doing one thing might lead to dissatisfaction and less happiness. For example, too much work can lead to huge stress and depression, while too much spending time at home and not being able to work may lead to a feeling of getting stuck in professional life and missing out social life. That is why balance is important. In my previous blogs, I have written tips on how to achieve work-life balance, such as by embracing the Dutch work habits. See the link for this blog. I also made a blog related on Why parents should work part-time to achieve balance in life. By being able to both work at least 2-3 days a week, both parents can have more time with family. These are just some of the life learning I had in living in the Netherlands. For this blog, I will focus on traveling and work-life balance.

Traveling is a good means to achieve work-life balance, especially if you have work outside traveling. Traveling can be de-stressing and can let you see the world from another perspectives. For some people, they found traveling as a means to escape their 9-5 work and make traveling their full-time work. They make their living out of full-time traveling by writing successful blogs and vlogs about their experiences. However, full-time traveling could be also stressful in its own ways, especially if the goal for traveling is to earn money instead of simply enjoying and discovering the world. That’s why I advice to never quit your job yet while relying on travel blogging, unless travel blogging is already incurring sufficient income. Or, simply travel while you have your work to finance your travels so you don’t miss important life experiences. Below I will discuss how traveling can help achieve work-life balance.

Five reasons why traveling helps you achieve work-life balance

1. Being away from work helps you appreciate your work more.

They say that the absence of something or someone makes you appreciate the person or a thing. The same thing applies for your work. Sometimes, people get tired of dealing on their own work due to stress  or overworking. This can have negative consequences because physical and emotional tiredness can cloud one’s judgement and objectiveness. By simply traveling, it detaches you from work and see that there is more to life than career. At the same time, the longer you are away from your work, then you may start missing your work as part of your daily activity. Remember that you cannot be all the time relax, because you need purpose – in this case a career. You cannot spend all your time living a life of leisure, there has to be purpose and fulfillment on what you do. Career is still very important and life is supposed to be multifaceted. Therefore, find a happy way that will balance the career and leisure time.

2. Taking a time off clear your mind and help you de-stress.

I have mentioned in my previous blog Achieve work-life balance by embracing Dutch work habits that overworking does not lead to increase in output. Whether it is a weekend staycation, a week or a month of traveling, it is important to take a time off away from work as a means to check your mental and personal health in balance. Clearing your mind for an extended period of time will deliver benefitsm such as new ideas and perspective, once you’re back in the office.

3. Traveling makes you happy and stay connected with the world.

Traveling makes you feel free and learn more outside of work. It educates you of other people’s cultures, the history and the arts and cuisines of local places. It also let you meet new people and share experiences. These simple things make your social life balanced.

4. Traveling provides valuable experiences.

Traveling gives experiences that are considered valuable and which nobody can take away from a person. Traveling makes us grow, learn new things, and get us away from our comfort zones.

5. Having a holiday increases the productivity.

In the Netherlands, employees are encouraged to take vacations by their employers by implementing a “use it or lose it” vacation policy and by giving them vacation money every year during the month of May (see Iamexpat.nl). One of the reasons why many companies in the Netherlands are giving holiday time with their employees is because it increases the productivity of the employees. There are many evidences in the 1800s that people work more hours and yet were less productive. Recent studies found out that working less actually makes people more productive.