Google Maps Holiday

This blog was originally posted on Medium.

Have you ever sat at your desk and found yourself dreaming of being on holiday somewhere?

You have definitely sat there stressing about something you were working on. You think “I can’t get up because I have to fix this”.

A coworker of mine a few years ago offered me a free and easy solution to this “Go on a Google maps holiday”. You’re already at your desk, chances are you have your browser open. Open another tab and type in Google maps. Allow yourself a minimum of 5 minutes for this.

The Planner

You might have a bucket list of places you want to visit or places you’ve been before that you want to return to. Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have an actual holiday coming up and you want to check it out. Whatever the reason, you have a plan when you open maps of what you want to see.

Find one of those places on the map, zoom in, go to street view and enjoy wandering around taking the sights in. Make sure to set yourself an alarm because you can forget that you’re actually at your desk!

The Wanderer

There doesn’t need to be a plan to the virtual holiday, you can wander too! A fun way to do this is close your eyes, move your mouse around the screen until you decide to stop, drop a pin and open your eyes. Start wandering around in street view where you’ve dropped your pin (provided it isn’t the middle of the ocean).

I’ve discovered some wonderful spots this way: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Burma, Iceland and Stockholm to name a few.

Sharing the Love

I’ve shared this when I interviewed with my last company. I was asked something along the lines of “How do you deal with stress?”. They definitely weren’t expecting me to reply with “Going on a Google maps holiday”! It’s something that stuck with anyone that was in the company when I started and has come in handy over the years when there were stressful situations.

The next time you see someone looking stressed in work, tell them about the Google maps holiday way of relaxing.