Fears about what will go wrong during a holiday include a loss of customers, missed opportunities, and looking unresponsive to current clients.
Truly successful people take holiday. They do it because they know they must be able to give 100 percent of themselves while they are working.
They also understand that they cannot afford to be tired, dragging, burned out, or crabby with clients and colleagues.
As with other business investments, your holidays will work better for you if you think them through ahead of time and plan them carefully.
This is especially important if you are someone who thinks there is never a “right” time to get away. Put your holiday on your calendar and take steps to prepare for it, just as you would any other project. This kind of advance planning will allow you to project potential snags, and take steps to ensure that they don’t deprive you of needed time off. It will also help you prepare your staff to cover for you while you’re away.
When is your business slowest? Or if you don’t have a “slow” time, when is it least hectic? Or when are your customers most likely to be away? These are the ideal times to take a break. Plan your time away around long weekends and other holidays ( Christmas/New Year’s), when everyone else will likely be gone, too. If your business is seasonal, go on holiday off-season. An accountant, for example, could go in May after the tax season ends; a retailer might pick February after the busy Christmas selling season.
If the idea of two weeks away makes you nervous, start by getting away from the office for a couple of days at a time. A series of long weekends can give you a needed break and still keep you available to clients. You then might want to try extending that weekend to Tuesday or Wednesday, and then to an entire week. The idea is to give yourself the confidence that you can be out of the office, and still find your business intact when you return.
Put a deposit on a country house, a beach house, or a hotel room. By making a deposit, you’re committing yourself to taking that time off and setting up financial consequences (lost deposits, cancellation penalties, etc.) if you decide not to get away.
Take a holiday to the end of a business trip. For example, if you live on the south coast, arrange a business meeting with clients and prospects up north Then take the following long weekend at a nearby spa or cosy Airbnb. This strategy can also save you money on travel.
Once you decide how long you’ll be away, figure out exactly what needs to be done before you go. Build this extra work into the days or weeks leading up to your holiday. By leaving with a “clean plate,” you’ll reduce your anxiety about getting out of the office, and give yourself a greater chance of relaxing.
Ideally, you don’t want to take work with you when you go on holiday. No laptop or cell phone; just some sun tan lotion or your golf clubs. But working on holiday is better than not taking a holiday at all. If that’s the case, work in short spurts — perhaps a couple of hours early in the morning when you can look at email or respond to pressing phone calls. Then once you’ve taken care of business, you can get back to the business of relaxing.
Don’t let the days following your holiday turn into a mad rush of catch-up. Some pre-vacation planning can help you get back into the swing of things without brining on any unnecessary stress. Make sure someone is in place while you are gone to scan your email, separating them into piles based on their importance. Ask project managers to be prepared to present you with organized, concise updates upon your return. Make a list of projects to complete upon your return before you leave for vacation when priorities are fresh in your mind.
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