Introduction
We’re waiting for the train to Gardermoen Airport. The Oslo sky is autumn blue, warm enough for just a light wool jumper. I can’t quite believe that this afternoon we’ll be in 30-degree heat in the bustling medina of Marrakech.
I’m mentally reviewing my packing list, but not the usual holiday checklist. I’m thinking about the other kind of baggage: work emails that need responses, a risk analysis course I’m retaking, a paper I’m writing, the Norwegian B1 course I just started, and this week’s blog post that still needs drafting.
It’s a familiar dilemma. How do you properly “koble av” (Norwegian for disconnect) when there’s always something that needs doing?
The standard advice is simple: don’t bring your laptop. Leave the work phone at home. If there’s an absolute emergency, your boss can reach you on your private number.
But what about learning? Studying? Creating?
These aren’t quite work. We do them because we want to develop ourselves. They can give energy rather than drain it. So ruling them out entirely just because it’s vacation would be oversimplifying.
I decided to treat this trip to Marrakech as an experiment. Test different approaches. Document what worked and what didn’t.
Picture of the ‘flytoget’ to Gardemoen Airport. Picture by Store Norske Leksikon
The experiment
My starting hypothesis: “Work on the plane, rest at the destination.”
It makes logical sense. Transit time is dead time anyway, sitting on buses, trains, at airports, on planes. Using those hours for productive tasks gives them purpose. It’s a pleasant distraction from waiting, satisfying when you actually accomplish something. And crucially, you’re not stealing time from the actual holiday.
It’s all good and well if we can leave it at that, but there’s a difference between answering emails or Teams messages whilst waiting for boarding (easy, mindless) and the kind of deep work that learning and creating requires.
When travelling, there are plenty of things that will take you out of your concentration, if you even manage to get into it in the first place. The person behind me can see my screen perfectly. There are screaming children two rows back. The drink trolley bumps into my elbow every thirty minutes. Turbulence will make typing impossible for stretches. The constant airplane drone. And the thoughts of what time and what to bring on the next mode of transportation.
Yes, working on transit time is better than staring at a headrest. But it’s hardly a coworking space. Which means I’ll need some focused time at the destination too. Time carved from the actual holiday. From family time. The question becomes: when? And how much? And how do I do this without becoming “that person” who brings work on holiday?
My ‘airplane working stack’ I put the Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphone over my Apple earpods to cover out most of the airplane noise.
Results
It’s only after a couple of days, after having adapted to chaotic Marrakech, that I realise there is a better way of navigating the productivity and relaxation dilemma.
View on one of the main squares in Marrakech. Picture by Nicolas Postiglioni.
The real ‘Work-work’ should be kept to the transit time only. Heading over the last open ends to a college whilst sitting on the bus can be a good way to start the holiday with peace of mind. But anything more than that should be avoided. You have a vacation for a reason, to recharge, and that should be acknowledged and supported.
But what about the learning, studying and creating?
For those, I found that it’s not so much about work versus holiday, or just about dead time versus destination time.
It’s about matching the type of attention you have available with the task that needs that specific type of attention.
The busy, overstimulating city of Marrakech created a need for quiet, focused, individual work. My Norwegian classes and blog post writing didn’t compete with the holiday but complemented it.
Our attention is our most valuable resource, but it’s not a single uniform thing. There’s social attention (navigating the medina, bargaining in shops). There’s ambient attention (airport walking, waiting for luggage). There’s focused attention (studying and writing). There’s creative attention (drafting this post). There’s depleted attention (scrolling Instagram).
The challenge isn’t eliminating productive tasks on holiday. It’s having a range of tasks available that match whatever attentional state you’re in and being honest about which state you’re actually in.
Getting ready to study by a hotel pool, where we bought a day pass to recharge from the travelling.
Conclusion
As the holiday comes to an end, I review what worked:
Transit time remains work time. Dead hours on planes and at airports are perfect for tasks that need focus but not great concentration. Email, homework, and administrative work. The “work on the plane, rest at the destination” rule holds.
Match the task to your mental state. Have options available. After overwhelming social input (Marrakech markets), I needed solitary focus time watching a lecture, writing a blog post, or just some casual reading when I was too depleted for any concentrated work.
The experiment taught me that recharging doesn’t always have to be passive. The trick is knowing which one you actually need. And then it can be rewarding to be productive during your holiday time as well.
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