The Real Problem With Slowing Down Is Not the Vacation

Slowing down isn't a vacation phenomenon. It fails on the first day back.

After a few days into a vacation, the mind goes quiet. The phone stays untouched, the meetings disappear, at some point you lose track of what day of the week it is. Works remarkably reliably. Almost everyone manages it.

The real task would be transferring that state into everyday work — and that's where the problem actually starts.

Monday, 8am. First meeting at 8:30. And the whole state from last week – gone. Not gradually dismantled, but deleted overnight, as if the slowed-down weeks had never happened.

I think we fundamentally handle slowing down wrong. As a state of exception. Something you grant yourself two or three times a year before going back to functioning "normally." Everyday life is the reality; vacation is the pause from it. What if we thought about it the other way around?

The more interesting question: why is everyday life built in a way that's barely bearable without a complete shutdown? And what if the real problem isn't the vacation itself – but the transfer back?

A few observations that come to mind:

On vacation, the number of decisions drops drastically. No "who reaches out first," no ten messages before the first coffee. The mind goes quiet because it has less to carry – not because you suddenly become a better version of yourself.

In everyday life, it's exactly the opposite: high decision density, constant interruption, the feeling of always being slightly behind. We've gotten used to calling that "work." The price you supposedly have to pay.

And then we're surprised that two weeks of rest are enough to be completely drained again within a single week.

A mental approach:

Maybe the flaw runs even deeper. We tie calm to place instead of to mindset. On the beach, slowing down is easy – the environment does most of the work. In an office with a full calendar, it's a decision, not a side effect. And decisions can be trained; places can only be sought out. As long as calm only exists in certain places, it stays a vacation phenomenon. Only once slowing down becomes a mindset – something you can bring into the first meeting at 8:30am too – does it become sustainable.

What still occupies me:

What if the real leadership work isn't about coming down well on vacation – but about not immediately ramping back up on the first day back? Deliberately easing back in, instead of packing the first day with twice as many meetings to "catch up."

That would mean: treating slowing down not as a state of exception you've earned – but as something that belongs in everyday life. In smaller doses, but regularly. Not just two weeks in summer, but a bit every week on top of that.

I don't have a finished answer to this. Just the observation that the first workday after vacation – for me, and for almost everyone I talk to about it – is the real break. Not the vacation itself.

How does this look for you: what helps you not immediately hit full speed on your first day back? Feel free to share in the comments – I'm curious whether there are strategies that actually work, or whether we're all stuck in the same "Monday hole"?