Does anyone else get really bored while they're on vacation?

I have been off for two weeks and I know how you feel. I have all this free time, but in the back of my mind I know I don't have that much time. In a fourteen day span its not really practical to pick up something that will be a long term time commitment seeing as I am back at work tomorrow. I just took things I was already doing and spent more time on them. I read a few books, spent more time with my wife and son, took longer walks, listened to more music, played some video games that had been sidelined.

By far the most arduous part was avoiding anything resembling my day job, avoiding tech news, avoiding anything that felt like work. Working in tech for sixteen years it is the least exciting way I can spend my free time, but habits formed over the years and the communities I participate in heavily sway my information flows into that space. I just started un-following people on twitter, removing myself from sub reddits, and deleted slack off my devices.

If I knew I was going to have more long term free time I can easily find ways to make use of it as I have hobbies that I only get to do sparingly, playing music, drawing, painting, watching horror movies, playing my back catalog of steam, switch and xbox games, doing investment research, doing yoga, and learning music production/recording. When work eats a third of my day everyday it makes it more difficult to do things I want to do, if you knew your job wasn't going to interfere with your life you probably wouldn't feel this way.

I start feeling the same way after a week of vacation. It might be due to a lack of a routine? Or maybe my lack of a routine ends up turning boredom into a routine itself.

Wake up, watch TV, scroll through HN/Reddit/Twitter, eat, sleep, repeat. There are literally zero stressors motivating me to do more. The things I already do don't feel as rewarding because I didn't have to go through any hurdles to get them.

I don't know what the right solution is, but creating artificial stressors (isn't that what we're all doing anyway?) has helped me stay sane. One way I do this is by diving deep into questions which I really want the answer to: Who invented X? Why did the Roman Empire fall? What made Islam or Christianity so popular? What is Web 3.0? My mind immediately gets excited as I start scouring the web for answers or even reaching out to a friend who might know more. No longer bored and better informed.

I suspect hobbies and conversations stimulate a similar effect.

Have you tried new physical activities, sport, etc? Making something with your hands also works for some of us.

If I travel for vacation, I take a moleskin notebook and write, sketch etc. Seek out activities that don't involve electronic displays, computers, etc.

I hurt my leg and took a week of vacation on top of the week that all the other staff got.

Funny I was thinking about personal growth projects obsessively the whole week I was laid up. Got a programming side project nearly finished, got a new tripod in the mail, had a great time with family in Binghamton.

I was dead tired for a few days but never bored.

I mean what's the point of a vacation if you're just staying at home? Yeah of course staying at home doing nothing is boring.

I get that way after 2ish weeks of time off. I need about that much time to fully decompress from work, but after that I start wanting to do something with myself.

Listen man, no one died from resting too much. Being bored is ok, it's good for you. Let's you dream of crazy things, putz around, look out the window more, etc.

Here is some good advice.....

It's good to rest after a day of doing nothing

Rest during the day, so you can sleep at night.

Work earns illness, do not pass away young.

If you have the urge to work, sit down, wait and you'll see it will pass.

If you see someone resting, help them out.

Love thy bed as you love thyself

When you see people eat and drink- approach them, when you see them work - withdraw yourself not to trouble them.

My feeling is that it takes a longer period of time to “unlock” the actual vacation stage if you’ve been at it for a while and have accumulated mental baggage. Maybe that’s burn out, I’m not sure. But I think there’s a negative period you have to get past before you are content and productive without work being that productive outlet. Another part of all this is that social media in particular has eroded our ability to sit still and be content. That needs its own detox process.

For me there's no point in vacations if I have to go back to work after. All I can think about is the work I have to do when I get back.

Frantically learn about the Curve Wars, that should do it.

I find the opposite pattern. The first week or so of a vacation I keep wondering about work and how the team is doing. It takes a while before I stop caring (and start ignoring work email). This is usually sped up by finding some side project to work on.

>(at home)

There is your problem. Vacation is a chance to try something different, something that wouldn't fit into your regular work schedule. Go travel somewhere, try mountain climbing, or skiing, or diving/swimming, or whatever else you can't do within a regular weekend. You'll come back energized, happy and refreshed.

I don't get bored, because I can regularly come up with some kind of project to work on that'll sustain my interest. However, so far I've never managed to finish one of these projects to an extent that I'm satisfied with before having to go back to work, at which point I end up being too mentally drained to continue work on it and, eventually, forget about it. So ultimately the experience is pretty unsatisfying and I can imagine that after a few more years of the working life (I only graduated a couple of years ago) I won't find it worth repeating it, and then I'll probably be getting bored during time off. My best hope to avoid this is probably to try to make my breaks more long and continuous rather than short and spread out.

Maybe you aren’t the hang around the house and relax kind of person. I’m not. It makes me lethargic and unsatisfied. I get a little antsy.

I need to build and create and explore in order to feel good. I might wire up some crappy electronic device, make a piece of furniture, play with my kids, teach my kids something, make a kumiko panel, draw, read, make a tool for my shop, try to 3d print something new and useful, go spearfishing, harvest seaweed, run, make a new interesting dish in the kitchen - if I’m not doing something, I feel like I’m wasting time. Doing this stuff is relaxing. Knowing I’m making the most of my time in this life gratifies me.

People have often told me it’s bad that I can’t slow down and just relax. To each their own though. I’d rather play guitar then listen to someone play guitar. I’d rather build a hot tub then buy one so I can sit in it. And that’s totally fine, so long as you’re happy!

Next time, take your laptop and hit the road! Enjoy some national parks. It seems you’re in USA - and if that’s the case, know we’re blessed with a lot of well maintained parks to visit and experience. Do some hobby coding at night when you’re done exploring :)

I share the same feelings. After covid hit I learned that I am not that self-sufficient and I need “the world” to recognize my work. Problem is that, WFH makes it harder to prove yoursef, so I just work my brains off and hope that someday I will prove myself out there. Other thing is that I like to do a lot of “solo” stuff — play guitar, work on side projects, etc. and this does not get along well with family dinners or being in a hotel somewhere. If I do not work at least couple hours a day, even weekends I get really grumpy. I always have some goals and projects to do, ever since a teenager, so I do not think I can and want to change.

I was feeling this way. I missed being busy and wanted to get back to feeling productive.

Yesterday changed that and I'd give anything to be bored again.

Yesterday we took our two dogs to the river for a walk. Two men got into trouble in the water, I jumped in to help. All I could do was help another man get free of one of the drowning men.

The fellow rescuer couldn't breathe with the panicking man grabbing him and the current pulling them both under. If I'd been first too them I'm sure I'd be dead as the other rescuer was in much better shape than me.

So I helped a man get free of another man's desperate struggle for life. I watched as two men died a few meters from me. In front of their family. A woman asked my wife why we weren't helping them. It was her husband and father.

The water was too dangerous, the men too panicked, and I was too unfit.

Emergency services recovered three bodies from that river. A woman and her daughter had drowned in the same spot a week ago. The woman's body was found by the divers looking for the two men.

I long to go back to being bored.

It took me months if not years to relearn enjoying doing nothing.

For me it appears I was cought in a unhealthy circle of stress that creeped into my life to be the new normal.

As I see it: Motivational deeps may are just a way into deeper relaxation. More Relexation leads to less stress and more creativity.

As a someone with three kids I'm very grateful to be back at the (remote) office to get bored.

Not only on vacation, but on unchallenging job too, kinda miss it

It means you only needed a 2 week vacation to get your mind rested, and now that you are ready to have a fun time off, you can't due to COVID. I don't think there is anything odd about that in any way.

It’s more like you realize you have no life because all your energy is spent at work. Continue beeing bored for a few years and your life will be totally different in a good way. Of course if you do that where do you get money from. So it is a luxury.