When to stop working prior to training?

[Tiggerman]

With the buzz of being accepted onto clinical training beginning to settle (a little!) It's starting to dawn on me that I have a lot to decide and do over the next few months. I currently work full-time, five days a week however i'm unsure as to how long I should stay working for. I was initially thinking on giving myself 3 weeks off prior to starting the course (possible going on holiday for two of those? or else giving myself 4 weeks off and taking two weeks for holidays) however some trainees/ Clinical Psychologists have advised me to take off more than that as the next three years will be 'so stressful' or 'the first week will be so overwhelming'. I agree with the statement 'each to their own' and I do like to keep busy - not particularily keen on sitting still for the weeks before it thinking too much but as I obviously don't fully know what i'm in for I was hoping people on the forum (since yous are always so helpful) have some advise on this? Whether you've been through it already, what you would do or what you plan to do yourself - i'd love to hear. Thanks!

[katz]

i took a month off i think. i agree that its down to the individual.
for me personally i found it really helpful to have some time to 'put my life in order', organising all my paperwork that i had been avoiding, sorting out my study, tidying the house and generally getting on top of things. this left me plenty of time to relax and enjoy being out of work mode for a few weeks too.

i know of others who took no time off, finishing one job and starting training the following week. My advice would be to allow yourself some time off just to clear your head and tie up any loose ends. beyond that i think its down to personal choice and circumstance.

enjoy a nice relaxing summer!

[matt.berlin]

I took almost two months off as I wanted to go travelling and had money saved up. I'm really glad I did that - but I am sure I would have managed on less, lots of people seem to do so.

[fledgling]

Congrats on your place, tiggerman . I'm taking a month, hopefully stretching it to 5/6 weeks with annual leave (would have liked longer, but finances will not allow). I'm going to have to relocate and don't want to start the course feeling stressed- plus by all accounts there won't be a chance for any kind of lengthy break for the next three years so we might as well get one in now!

[Loula]

I had about 2 months off because the contract for my RA post ended. I enjoyed having time off, but I wouldn't have liked any longer. I think it depends what you plan to do with your time- my OH couldn't take much time off and we weren't in a position to go travelling so I stayed fairly local during my time off and mainly did work on the house and garden.

[Baneen03]

Nice to see I'm not the only one trying to figure out what's best in this respect!

I have about 15 days of AL left to take but wouldn't be able to afford not to work for a month so I'm trying to figure out whether it's feasible for me to finish my contract at the end of Sept but not actually be in work during Sept. There's only so much time-owing I can build up. May ask about some unpaid leave...

[Ruthie]

I had 2 weeks of annual leave at the end of my AP post which I used to relocate to a completely different part of the country and also submit my PhD thesis that I'd just finished - first term of training felt like a holiday to me!

In seriousness - as much time as you feel you can afford to would be my advice - might as well enjoy yourself!

Ruthie

[workingmama]

I'm feeling rather poor at the moment - moving house seems to need me to just open up my wallet and pour everything into the estate agent's open paws - so I'm going to stop three weeks before we start (school term starts two weeks before training, so we need to get down there for that), and will see what freelance I can pick up to fatten up the depleted coffers on the days I'm not 'officially' working until then, and work like a fiend.

Looking very much forward to that three week gap (and hoping the sproggles settle in fast!)