One of the keys to traveling as much as possible with limited time off is to strategically plan your PTO. In this guide we have laid out a handful of topics that you need to consider when putting together your travel plans for the next year. Strategic PTO planning will truly help you maximize your paid time off!
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Understanding Your PTO – What is PTO?
As you have picked up by now, PTO means “paid time off”.
First things first for vacation planning – you need to understand your company’s PTO policy. Paid time off policy will differ from company to company. Small business vacation policies may look completely different than a large business.
Some companies may utilize a general PTO “bucket”, where you have a certain number of days available to utilize as you desire. These days can be used for vacation days or sick days (and yes, these are the best policies). Other companies may have separate pools: one for vacation days, one for sick days, and one for personal days.
In addition, the way the paid time off accumulates will vary from company to company. So, be sure to check your policy and see if you are given your yearly allotment at the beginning of the year or if it accumulates per pay period. If your company accumulates PTO throughout the year, you may need to check your policy to see if it is possible to request days off early in the year (before you have technically earned the PTO). Many companies will allow you to borrow ahead but be sure to check your policy before booking any travel.
Setting PTO Goals
Sit down and write out some clear goals for your PTO usage for the next calendar year. Get started by asking yourself these questions:
- What is my budget for travel for this year?
- How many vacation days do I have?
- How often do I want to travel?
- What are your top 5-10 travel destinations for this year?
- Of these destinations, which should be long trips and which will be short?
- Which of these destinations will be relaxation and which will be fast travel / adventure?
Answering these questions will help you develop clear goals for your PTO usage for the year. Maybe you want to travel a couple of days every month and visit a bunch of places on your list. Maybe you want a couple of long trips during the year to explore and relax. Your goals will be unique to you!
PTO Calendar Creation
A visual representation of your travel for the year is extremely helpful. I myself use a monthly calendar as well as a excel sheet noting available holidays for my husband and myself. This makes it easier to track the lengths of trips and how many days of PTO are remaining.
On your calendar make sure you note your desired travel dates – then start searching for flights and manipulate your plans as needed to get the best flight deal. Utilizing a vacation planning calendar will help you get a visual of your plan.
Need a calendar for 2024? Download one here!
Planning Around Weekends and Holidays
We love planning vacations around holidays and weekends! Utilizing these days, gives you extra time at your destination without having to take additional vacation days.
Combining your PTO with a holiday can save you vacation days to use in the future and give you the ability to add an extra leg to your multi-stop adventure or add another day to relax on the beach.
The biggest issue with utilizing your holidays for travel is that flights can be more expensive. So, if this is something that you want to use as part of your PTO travel strategy, then you need to look at booking earlier than normal.
Check out our blog post going into this strategy here: Taking Advantage of Holidays for Travel
Requesting PTO Effectively
Remember, you need to request your PTO with your company. The way to make this request will vary from company to company, but you need to make sure you give your employer an appropriate amount of time to plan for you to be out of office. Your PTO request may require a carefully worded email, specific paperwork, or just a casual conversation with your boss.
While many companies are fine with a 2-4 week heads up, we would highly recommend requesting any holiday travel farther in advance. Depending on your occupation, there may be issues with too many people taking the holiday off and we want you to be able to score that!
Remember to never feel guilty for requesting PTO. This is a part of your salary and you have earned this time off to spend how you see fit.
Balancing Workload Before and After PTO
No matter how long I have been scheduling and planning around a vacation that I have on my calendar, I always end up scrambling to get work done before I leave town. I have gotten better at this over the years but something always seems to pop up right as I am wrapping things up before my PTO.
While the things that have to get done will need to be completed prior to your departure, try to schedule around your PTO as much as possible. Try to set due dates for a couple of days before you leave so that you can concentrate on any random tasks that pop up the day before you leave.
A couple of weeks before you leave, take the time to sit down with your coworkers and discuss any workload that needs to be passed to them in your absence. It may even be necessary to start cc’ing them on any emails a week or so ahead of your PTO so that they will be plugged into any project that they will be managing for you.
In addition, make sure you give your self a day to catch up when you return to work. If you have the ability, don’t throw a bunch of meetings on your calendar for your first day back. Work with your supervisor so they know you may need a day to catch up on emails before the handful of looming meetings. Having a day to catch up also helps in case you have flight problems. Flights get delayed and cancelled and this way you wont need to reschedule a handful of meetings if you run into issues.
Utilizing these tips will allow you to truly unplug, leave your laptop at home, and enjoy the time traveling.
Budgeting for PTO
Make sure you have a clear set budget for your travel for the year. Travel budgeting can be difficult for multiple reasons but we have found that it is easier to work off of a travel budget for the entire year vs a travel budget per trip. Using a yearly vs trip specific budget helps you look big picture. After looking at the big picture you can decide which trips will need more spending than others.
We have found that the best way for us to do more with less is utilizing travel credit cards. We attempt to pay for at least half of the trip with points and the rest with cash. Make sure you pay off that card every month and you are looking at free money that can cover flights or hotel stays.
Comment below if you would like to learn more about points credit cards and we will send you a link!
Short Getaways and Micro-Vacations
Don’t feel like you can only use your PTO in week long bouts at a time. There is nothing wrong with taking Friday off and having a long weekend trips.
We love having quick beach trips. If we can find a good flight deal, we love an opportunity to leave on a Thursday night after work and waking up in the Florida panhandle, spending all day Friday and Saturday relaxing on the beach, and then heading home on Sunday.
One day of PTO and you can come back refreshed and ready to start work on Monday. Get creative and enjoy a short getaway or micro-vacation that is fulfilling to you (whether its camping, skiing, or getting sunburned on the beach).
Adapting PTO Plans
Keep in mind that you may need to adapt your PTO for a multitude of reasons.
While we are huge fans of having every day of your PTO accounted for, we also like to have a couple of extra days unassigned to use for spontaneity. You could stumble upon an incredible flight deal that you can’t pass up or your best friend may get engaged and you need to take some time off for her wedding.
In addition, remember that the world is not perfect and sometimes flexibility is key. This may look like a hurricane hitting the Caribbean or a blizzard in the northeast. We always recommend travel insurance and booking refundable tickets (especially when booking far in advance).
Conclusion
We hope this article helps you strategically plan your PTO for the upcoming year. Remember to keep in mind these tips in mind when it comes to planning your vacation days:
- Understand your PTO policy
- Set your PTO goals
- Utilize a PTO calendar/tracker
- Plan around weekends and holidays in advance
- Effectively request your PTO
- Balance your workload before and after your vacation
- Set your travel budget
- Short/Micro Vacations are not to be feared
- Remember to adapt
Share your experiences in the comments below and pin this for later!
Super helpful, thanks so much for writing this! There’s never enough PTO 😂😂😂
This is exactly how I plan my holidays. The short mini holidays are easy to plan, however, I have a difficult time with the longer ones as there are so many places I want to go lol. To over-come this, I write all my bucket list destinations on a piece of paper and put them in a jar and pull one or two out at the beginning of the year (depending on my travel budget), and that’s where I go. I’m glad I’m not the only one who has last minute items come up at work that have me rushing before I leave. It usually takes me 2 days when I return to go through all my emails.
I love this idea so much!
Great tips for utilising your PTO. I often have extended weekends.
This is great! I wish I had this a few years ago! Awesome strategy to maximize time off 🙌🏼
It is an interesting article about PTO. Usually, we travel 3 times a year and every time it is a battle over budget and destination. I’ll use your tips for 2024 year.
I run my own business and so I don’t have to plan around PTO, but I think sometimes that makes it harder to plan big trips because I have to be working on them. I’d love to know your tips for working while traveling as well!
As mentioned by some of the others, I’m one of the lucky ones who is already using this strategy to get the most of out of my PTO! I try to plan around all the long weekends we have so I don’t have to use as much time.
I also appreciate that you added in a conversation with your coworkers. I always try to talk to my coworkers before I start planning a vacation to see if they have vacation planned too. Also, before I head out, I make sure they are equip with everything they need to fill my shoes while I’m out. It does make the week before a vacation a bit busier but it’s worth it!
Great advice on requesting PTO! Using federal holidays is a great strategy to maximize time off.
The amount of times I already needed a holiday after the first day back, because work just piled up…. Haha. These are great tips, thank you!
As a freelancer I have to plan differently now but when I was employed I’d always max out PTO! So great to have more time to travel and you give amazing tips!
Thanks for these suggestions! I can never decide what I want to do with my PTO. I guess it’s because I’m bad at planning?😅 I always feel like there isn’t enough time to fit in a whole trip so this helps alot!
Some good tips in here. Here in the Netherlands we have some more PTO than in the US, but it’s still handy to make the most of it.
Thanks for sharing these tips.
Wonderful and insightful article! Will be using these tips for planning my next vacation.
Great tips! There’s never enough PTO so really need to plan in advance and utilize everything!!