PTO: Prepare The Others. How to use 18 days to get 45 off

Christmas is OVER ! So that means 2023 is here ! A few months back on Twitter, I came across this extremely helpful post about how to maximize the use of your PTO time for 2023. And since I did this for 2022, a little late, this is the perfect time to do it for 2023.

Hopefully this blog will show you how to get 45 days of vacation using only 18 days of PTO, spread throughout the year. Based solely around holiday days that were already allocated to you. I like traveling, so I bookmarked this just so I could make this post. I will be using it, I hope you will too.

So shoutout to @MBA_ish on IG for doing the work.

January

If you get MLK day — January 16, 2023 — off, and you take off the Thursday and Friday beforehand (January 12 and 13), you can block off that five-day stretch.

February (Not Included but this is

my personal hack)

If you get Presidents Day- Monday, February 20, 2023, take off the Friday before and the Tuesday after and get a 5 day vacation. 5.5 if you find a Thursday evening flight.

April

If you get Good Friday (April 7) and Easter Monday (April 10) off, and you take off the week leading up to Good Friday, you can take a 10-day vacation.

July

By taking off just the Monday before Tuesday, July 4, you can give yourself a four-day break.

November

The end of the year is really when you should maximize your time off. If you are at the end of the year and you still have time to use. If you take the week before Thanksgiving week (After Veterans Day) , and the days leading up to Thanksgiving, you will have at least a 16-day break. This assumes that you have Thanksgiving and Black Friday off.

If you don't want to take all this time. You can just do the days leading up to the holiday and just use 3 days.

December

By taking off just four days after Christmas, you can have a 10-day holiday vacation.

All together- you will have used 18 (20 if you use February) days of PTO to get 45 (or 47) days of vacation.

I understand that most companies only allow for six holidays: New Years Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Anything outside of that is bonus and depending on where you work those might not be holidays. However, this is just a ballpark analysis of the way you can make you PTO stretch. It's easier to build around holidays, but also remember everyone else is also traveling during these periods. So it may be smarter to take the days after a holiday. Just go with whatever works best for you, your job and your needs. All in all, just plan accordingly, give yourself travel time and have fun. 2023, we are making traveling easier by working smarter not harder. Don't reinvent the wheel, just work with it.