5 Ways to Maximise Your Annual Leave in 2019 – There’s still a lot to play for!

As many of us work full-time and unfortunately are entitled only to a fixed number of days for annual leave, sad times! it really does become important to book time off in advance. Obviously you can keep a couple of contingency days but for the most part if you have days off in the diary you put yourself on the hook to live more, and that’s what we want to promote.

It’s so easy to get bogged down with routine, family life, pressures of work not to mention life’s woes and bills. If you plan your holidays carefully you can hack the annual leave system and take back some of your time! Any way let’s get into it . 5 Ways to Maximise Your Annual Leave!

1. Use Your Bank Holidays Wisely

We live in the UK, and we fortunately get a number of bank holidays spread throughout the year, therefore you can use these days effectively by incorporating them with your own annual leave to them to extend your holiday – meaning overall, you’ll be out of the office for longer using a minimum number of your own annual leave days.

Look for long weekends and extended breaks – This is an obvious one but if you’ve got a Bank Holiday day coming on a Friday, Book off the Thursday or the following Monday. Here’s a few steps to really take advantage of these days. (If you don’t live in the UK you can still apply this, just note down your public holidays and apply the steps below)

1. Make sure you know what days, Bank holidays fall on. For 2019 these are the holidays this year

• Tuesday, January 1: New Year’s Day.
• Friday, April 19: Good Friday.
• Monday, April 22: Easter Monday.
• Monday, May 6: Early May bank holiday
• Monday, May 27: Spring bank holiday.
• Monday, August 26: Summer bank holiday.
• Wednesday, December 25: Christmas Day.

Think about the trips and holidays you want to take, and use weekends as well as Bank Holidays to keep your annual leave to a minimal. If you book your holidays below you could save yourself a whopping 24 days extra which is basically your annual leave if you live in the UK ! Apologies if you’ve missed the boat on any of these days.

2. Travel doesn’t always have to be a trip anywhere!

Travel for a lot of people represents a chance to escape the monotony of our lives. It doesn’t always mean catching a flight to somewhere far, far away. For us it doesn’t even mean going away sometimes, it can be an experience like a helicopter ride

or an afternoon tea, a show. We try to do something every couple of week that’s different, even if it’s something small. It may be that your schedule only allows for you to do something once a month, which it totally fine. The point we’re trying to make is, don’t let your lives get too routine, switch it up, shock your system.

You can think about it like the gym in a lot of ways, you’re encouraged to switch up your routine, well the same thing goes for your brain, by not changing your routine, you’re wasting a lot more time than you think. Check our article on How to slow down time if you’re interested in this topic.

3. Book Half Days

The advantage of being in the UK is that Europe is so close by as well as flights and travel being relatively cheap. There are lots of deals to be found and travelling on a budget is definitely possible. Take advantage of booking off half days and extending your weekend just a little longer so you can avoid rush hour traffic, get escape to a weekend break away.

4. Buy Holiday

Granted – this might not be something every company offers, but if it is we recommend you take full advantage! If you can survive on a slightly lower income monthly, what’s a little less if you’re spending you get to spend your time away from work enjoying the world. The question you should ask yourself is, how much do you value your time? We think work sometimes does have to take a back seat to fulfill your passions. Make time for you dreams!

5. Go into work later on a Monday

Let’s be honest, most employers are relatively flexible nowadays, and asking to come in later on Monday, or working from home, should you be tired after a flight is really not a big deal. You absolutely owe it to yourself to maximise your breaks. The worst your company can say is no. Projects that you are working on can be important as can be promotions and career progression, but a lot of the time for a lot of people, it’s the experiences and perceived little things that you didn’t do which turn out to be the big things. Don’t let that be you.

How many annual leave day’s am I actually entitled to?

We founda great link on Wikipedia that gives you a view of the total number of annual leave day’s that you are entitled to wherever you live. Check it out here

How much annual leave am I entitled to if I work Part-time?

If you live in the UK, then Part-time workers are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, but this will amount to fewer than 28 days. For example, if they work 3 days a week, they must get at least 16.8 days’ leave a year (3 × 5.6).
In Summary…

In Summary…

The message that we’re trying to put across here is to take advantage of every day that you can, don’t trap yourself in a box and give yourself reasons not to go anywhere, whether that’s a trip abroad, a day/night out with loved ones. There’s lots of room in your everyday life to take more of yourself, so do it. It’s time that we all seized the day.

At Binge Travelling have made a conscious effort, to make the most of our days in this way and you’ll feel the benefit in your mood and relationships too, and let’s face it, that’s what life is really about.

Thank’s for reading our post, if you enjoyed the read, feel free to check out our travel well for less blogs on our site and  subscribe to our newsletter. Also if you have any more helpful tips, please leave a comment below, we really appreciate all of your support.