How to turn 20 days of annual leave into 47 days of holidays in 2018.

Already thinking about your next holiday?

Yep, us too. And while we were thinking about those precious annual leave days, we were also thinking about how to make the most of them. Because it turns out, with a little planning, you can actually create 47 days of holidays.

How? Well, it’s a matter of working with the annual leave you have – if you’re an average Aussie worker, that’s four weeks or 20 days, plus the public holidays you’re owed and your weekends.

Some public holidays vary state-to-state, so we’ve tried to mostly focus on the ones common to each state: Christmas, Good Friday etc.

So let’s start in January.

Total leave taken = 1 day.

Total break = 4 days.

Given that Australia Day falls on a Friday, you could take either Thursday 25th or Monday 29th off as annual leave and create a nice little four-day weekend for yourself. Perfect for a mini break.

Moving on to March and April, there's a way to carve out a 16-day break and then another nine-day one using Easter and Anzac Day. Two holidays in the same month? Why not? Bonus points if you've got an extra two weeks up your sleeve from the previous year and can turn this into a 37-day mega break.

Total leave taken = 12 days.

Total break = 25 days.

Now that you're well rested, you'll be prepared to slog it out through winter and work through until spring. Then you can use that public holiday in your state that falls on in September or October to create another nine-day break. As an example, we've used NSW's Labour Day on October 1st, but you could easily do this with Victoria's September 28th Grand Final Eve day or WA's Queen's birthday on September 24th.

Total leave taken = 4 days.

Total break = 9 days.

Finally, use your last three days of leave to make the most of your Christmas break.

Total leave taken = 3 days.

Total break = 9 days.

So there you have it, with some careful planning you can turn 20 days of annual leave into 47 days of holidays.

The only thing left to do now is to get those leave requests in to your boss and to start planning your holidays.