I’m off on vacation today.
Which is a little weird as I just got back from a week long vacation in May, cruising with my family. Usually my trips for personal stuff get a little more spread out, but I’m slowly learning to relax and try to take advantage of the benefits and balance out my life better.
I travel a good bit for work, taking 13 trips for work, 2 as a coach, and 1 vacation in the first half of 2026. It was a busy time, and for the first time in a quite a few years, my wife didn’t come on any of the work trips. That made it a hard six months for both of us.
It’s not one’s fault, but we decided to do better, both to enjoy our lives more, but also to ensure we’re recharging and refreshing. Our changes for H2 are to take these trips together:
- Jul 3-6 vacation
- Jul 17-20 Day of Data Baton Rouge + 2 nights in New Orleans
- Aug 10-18 – Cambridge for a week for me and then 5 days at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh
- Oct 10-19 – Cruise in Europe
- July TBD – Camping for a long weekend
- Sept TBD – a long weekend in the mountains of Colorado
It’s a nice set of things to look forward to, which will break up my work periods with something coming every month to look forward to. With Thanksgiving and Christmas, this feels like a relatively relaxed H2 for me, which is great.
I’m learning to relax and work a little less, enjoying life more. Many of you do this better than I do already, so thanks for all the comments, ideas about trips, and sharing about things you enjoy outside of work.
This also might be the first time I get to Q4 without any extra vacation that I have to start burning without plans.