Yes, we only just packed away our bikinis and sundresses for another year and yes, Christmas may be months away (despite what the shops would have us believe), but that shouldn't stop us from thinking about next year's holidays. Not only is it often cheaper to get in there early, it gives you something to look forward to during these often gloomy months.
Booking your annual leave before your colleagues also means you're more likely to be able to double your holiday time for 2018. Most British workers get around 28 days off per year, but by planning your days off strategically around bank holidays and weekends, you can stretch the length of time you're out of the office in one go, explained Instant Offices.
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If you wanted to take advantage of the hack from this Christmas, for example, you could get 10 days off in a row (23rd December to 1st January) by booking off just three days (27th, 28th and 29th December). This is because Christmas day is on a Monday this year
This logic gets even more exciting when you apply it to 2018 and start thinking about all the exotic holiday opportunities that suddenly become possible. If you fancy an Easter getaway, you could go away for 16 days from the 24th March to the 8th April by using a mere eight days of holiday.
That's because of all those joyous bank holidays around Easter: Good Friday (30th March), Easter Monday (2nd April) and the early May bank holiday on the 7th of the month. There are also three weekends over this time, which help. Or, if you like, you could take off 24 days in a row from 5th to 28th May by sacrificing just 14 days of holiday, thanks to the early May bank holiday and Spring bank holiday (28th May).
Happily, you can also take advantage of the trick during summer holiday season thanks to the August bank holidays. By using just four days of annual leave you can take a nine-day break from 25th August to 9th September.
After that, you can use the hack to make the most of your time off at Christmas (or, you know, just use it to slob out in front of the TV with a barrel of Quality Street). Take a hefty 16 day break from 24th December to 6th January by using up just seven days of paid leave. Now you just need to get those dates in the office calendar before everyone else.