On Friday, my nine-year-old asked: “Where are you going mummy?”

“To work,” I said.

“But why? It’s the summer holidays!”

When I explained that once you finish school most people no longer get two months off every summer, not to mention a week or two off every couple of months in between, the look of distaste on his face was priceless.

I recognised his shock and dismay. I remember my first real job after college. The summer rolled around and I couldn’t quite grasp that they expected me to carry on working, at the same pace, every day. It just seemed wrong.

Twenty years later and I still get twinges for that summer holiday feeling.

Do you remember it? School broke up and stretched before you was a seemingly never-ending horizon of no homework, no uniforms, relaxed bedtimes and nothing you had to do. The sense of freedom and possibility was boundless.

Even as I got older, summer jobs were fun — including the boring ones. Nothing was permanent.

And although I would never have believed it in July, by September I was ready and excited to go back to school.

I miss that! Admittedly, I am getting to enjoy it somewhat vicariously. The reduced stress of slightly more relaxed mornings and less traffic on the roads does feel like sweet relief. But even as I plan a much-anticipated, two-week summer getaway, I’m packing the diary, the laptop and, of course, the phone. The to-do list, the e-mails and life’s responsibilities never seem to take a break. That thought alone invokes the total opposite of freedom and possibility: that there is no end to this crazy game of catch up. The ‘ready and excited’ feeling to get back to work is so rare these days, because most of us never leave work behind.

It’s true the world isn’t going to stop spinning, but unless we make a point to get off the merry-go-round every now and then, we are going to get really dizzy, ie burnt out and plain ole miserable.

Everything from our health, to our relationships and even our ability to be fully effective at work can be threatened — the irony!

Daniel Goleman’s book, Focus — The Hidden Driver Of Excellence, presents the scientific case for needing to rest our mental muscles and “switch off from effortful attention” in order to avoid the fatigue that affects performance, outlook and creative thinking. Apparently “surfing the web, playing video games and answering e-mails” do not cut it as a cognitive holiday.

We actually need to unplug and engage our “full focus on something relaxing” in a quiet, relaxing setting to “restore our focus and composure”.

Nature’s good for this — a garden walk, a swim in the ocean, watching a sunset.

Testing showed that for increasing focus on return to concentrated tasks, even sitting by a mural of a nature scene — particularly one with water in it — is better than the corner coffee shop.

You can always send yourself off to Camp Grounded for a week — a totally unplugged grown-up summer camp in the woods. I found it during my research and you know that’s right up my tepee.

Whatever you’re up to, let’s make sure that this summer we give ourselves a real holiday, even if it’s just on your day off. Designate time to step away from the to-do list, to disengage with the digital and to be in the moment of possibility and freedom again.

When you are fully focused on the present, the noise of the carousel recedes and we give our mental faculties the much-needed break they require, so when we do return to our work we will feel refreshed and renewed. Happy summer everyone!

Julia Pitt is a trained success coach and certified NLP practitioner on the team at Benedict Associates. For further information contact Julia on 705-7488, www.juliapittcoaching.com.