How To Take Time Off WITHOUT Feeling Guilty Or Overwhelmed
When you work for yourself, it's hard to turn off isn't it?
It's hard not to feel guilty and feel compelled to answer that client that just emailed you, or feel worried about that project that's still on hold or that check that you're waiting to clear.
And yet working and thinking about work 24/7 is not the key to financial and business success - it just leads to overwhelm.
I want to talk about the idea of turning off, especially when maybe things aren't going great in your business, or you're a little stressed out.
Work-life balance for entrepreneurs
In the early years of our business, I distinctly remember the holidays as being a time when Steve and I would secretly revel in the fact that we could work all day every day and not be bothered.
I remember thinking, ‘How nice is it to work on Christmas Eve or the days after Christmas before New Year's, to go into the office and not have to answer emails and not have anyone expect to hear back from me,’ which would allow me to do the deep work that I really wanted.
Sometimes we would wake up in the morning, on a day that we were supposed to take off and get this mischievous look in our eyes and go, ‘Hey, how about we take a day on’ and we'd both get really excited.
Maybe we'd go in a little late, maybe we'd go out for breakfast, first drink some coffee, get amped for the day. And then we would go in and work hardcore.
This is, of course, before I had a kid before I had any other responsibilities except this business.
But I really enjoyed it.
And I share this because I don't want you to think that I've had some sort of amazing balance in my life since I started this business.
For entrepreneurs, learning to not work and find a balance can be more challenging sometimes, because owning a business is all consuming.
Now you may not feel like tha. You may feel like ‘Jeez, I've been working hard all year and I need a break, I want a break.’
But it doesn't mean that your mind and your body are going to let you take that break easily.
So let's talk about some things that you can do to get that rest, relaxation and recharge that you need, without the guilt and without piling on the ‘shoulds’ that might stop you from actually resting.
Now whether you're going to take a couple of days off to spend with your family, or a full week or two, or you have vacation plans, this is still something that every entrepreneur wrestles with.
So I'd like to share my recommendations for what you can do to both have your cake and eat it too.
Planning for vacation and setting boundaries
The first thing is to just stop and make a plan for yourself.
Look at your calendar and see when you want to take your time off and decide those days (whether it's a couple days or a week or two weeks) are when you're going to fully check out.
And the only way you can fully check out is if you have a plan for how you're going to get the things done you need to do.
What's going to happen if something urgent comes in? You just need a plan. That's it.
So what I recommend is before you have those days off, you actually put some time aside in your calendar to sit down and make a plan for what you want to get done before you go on vacation, and for when you come back.
Whenever I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by all the things that need to happen, the very first thing I do is I sit down with a piece of paper or my iPad, and I list all the things that are on my mind.
And I make a long list.
Then, as I continue to work and do planning, more things will come to mind and I'll just keep writing them on the list.
I just want to get them all out of my head because that's really where the stress and overwhelm comes from, for me at least.
It's these things that are floating around in my head that don't have a place, and so our goal for this strategy session that we've created for ourselves is to put everything in a place.
Imagine that you're reorganizing your closet. We want to take everything out, to look at what we've got and then find a place for everything.
We're going to do that with your work.
So make that list of all the things that have to get done, all the things you'd like to get done, and all the things that you would like in place before you get back from vacation.
And then I want you to simply make a plan to make these things happen before and after your vacation.
It might be that you schedule these things to do into your calendar for the next couple of days leading up to the time you're taking off. Great.
If you have to work a couple of extra hours, do it. Don't feel bad about it. The purpose of this time is to get this stuff off your plate and finished so that when it's time to check out, you can do so with a clean mind and conscience.
Then I want you to schedule what it's going to look like on the other side of this time off, when are you going to come back to work, and what are the things you're going to get done in those first few days to make sure you're set up for success.
It might be that you schedule some of the things on your list to do when you come back. Or it might be that you're trying to get everything done before you go away.
In which case, I want you to make a plan for when you come back, and maybe even write yourself a letter to remind yourself where you left off, and what's going to happen in the coming weeks.
I like to write myself this letter, well, not quite a letter, but it’s kind of putting all my ideas down on paper so that I know that when I sit down when I come back from this vacation, I don't have to go searching and trying to figure out where I left things off.
This is a detailed account of everything that's going on in my business, what I'm going to need to pick up and how I'm going to pick up where I left off as diligently as possible.
That means links to emails that I think I might need to respond to or links to files that I'm going to be working on whatever it is. I want to make this as detailed as possible.
And here's why.
When I'm working on projects that are ongoing, sometimes it can be hard to get back into them.
And sometimes I feel like I need to finish them in the moment because I don't want to lose track of where I am.
And if I stop a project that isn't finished, and I go on vacation, and I don't feel like I have a really good handle on how I'm going to pick it up, when I get back, that project is going to hang over me.
But if I pull all of that information out of my head, and write it down in a way that I know is going to be able to be picked right back up when I come back, that allows me to really put it down.
And that's what we're trying to do here - we want to put it down completely.
Put this time aside, strategize all the things that I need to do, and then put them down on the calendar before and after with a plan for when I come back, so that I can pick things up right where I left off.
Next is to make a plan for what you're going to do while you're away if something happens.
First, you have to define what is so urgent that it could possibly need your attention while you're away, and the answer may be nothing.
It may be that you want to contact all of your clients and everybody that you work with and say, ‘Hey, guys, just so you know, I'm checking out from these days, and I won't be available, and there is nothing urgent that you're going to need. So if you need something before, then please make sure you let me know now because I am not going to be available’.
Create really strong boundaries for yourself and let people know ahead of time thatI will not be answering anyone during this time and there is nothing so important in business that you cannot take a week away without getting back to people.
So make a plan for that.
If you have ongoing clients, you definitely want to communicate with them. And it doesn't mean being mean about it. You don't have to say ‘Hey, I'm not going to answer you, so Buzz off, right?’ Say, ‘Hey, I want to enjoy my holidays. And I want you to enjoy your holidays too. So if you need anything from me, here is the deadline, please make sure you get back to me and let me know. And I will take care of whatever you need before we go away. Because when I'm away with my family, I'm going to be completely present for them.’
Any client who has a problem with that should no longer be a client of yours.
Taking breaks for mental and physical rest
Finally, make a plan to really turn these notifications off.
Do you get those little dings on your phone? Do you get notifications on your phone when somebody sends you an email?
What kind of habits do you have, where you're maybe addicted to checking to see if there's something to do?
And are you ready to let those habits go for the duration of your vacation? Because I know that it can be hard to wake up on vacay day one, and not check your email.
But it's something I strongly urge you to do.
Because getting a break in your mind and in your body from actually working 24/7 is going to allow your brain to rest and it's going to allow you to really enjoy your time with your family, yourself, your friends or whoever it is that you're spending your time away with.
And if you can't do it for yourself, then do it for your business, because our businesses flourish when we have the energy and the enthusiasm to work on them.
If you've ever had a day where you were just over it, you were exhausted, and you felt like ‘I just don't want to do this right now’, your productivity goes way down.
So there are days when I feel totally useless and I'll go home in the middle of the day, and I could sit here and twiddle my thumbs for the next couple of hours and pretend to work and try to feel busy.
But is that really going to do anything for my business?
Now, I'm much better off taking this time, using it for myself, and coming back when I am refreshed and recharged and I can get things done in a fraction of the time.
So that's what I want to offer you today.
I want to offer you permission to take the space for yourself. Whether your business is doing as well as it could be or not as well as you'd like, a week or two is not going to make a difference.
You know what will make a difference?
Living your life, getting some rest and making a plan for coming back ready to rock and roll.
And if this helps, think about it this way.
When I would have a hard time taking time off or feeling okay about it, or feeling okay about not being productive, I would remember that a couple times a year, I would get sick or have spells of migraines four or five days, and when that happens. I can't do anything - I’m totally bedridden.
And guess what happens?
The world doesn't stop and my business doesn't fold.
Everything manages to work out fine.
Maybe it sucks. Maybe it's frustrating. Maybe I wasn’t able to fulfill on the things that I promised.
Maybe there's a backlog of work when I get back.
But the world doesn't blow up. Everything's fine, and everything is able to get back on track.
So if that's able to happen when you're sick, then the same thing can happen when you want to take some time for yourself.
So if you need to use that visual, be my guest. This is way better than being sick because you're not sick. And also you also foresee it, you know what the dates are, and you can plan accordingly.
And then make that plan for when you come back.
Annual goal setting and strategy with a business coach
Every year, Steve and I have a two day full strategy session where we go through all of our wins from the year.
We celebrate, then we look at our goals for the previous year and see how we did or didn't achieve them.
We course correct and talk about what we want this next year to look like.
Then we talk about our 10 year goals, those really big goals of what we want our lives to look like in 10 years time and do some visioning.
It’s all a great way to set up our year for success.
We make sure to put that in the calendar at the beginning of January or at the end of December so that we're set up to hit the ground running in January.
And then I take my entire No BS Agency Mastery Program through that process as well.
So every year, for the first week of January, we go through the same strategy process.
This process alone can be eye opening for you, especially if you don't have a process that you stick to every year and and every quarter to actually go back and visit those goals, see how you're doing and course correct.
I credit doing this every year and having a process to keep track of my accountability to those goals throughout the year.
I credit that with everything I've accomplished in the last 14 years of business.
And so we continue to do it, we refine it and we add on to it every year just to make it a little bit better. But it's something I really look forward to doing with Steve and then I really love doing it with my Mastery Program.
So if you're looking for a way to have your own goal setting process for the year, or even for the quarter, then go to nobsagencies.com/apply, to set up a call with my team, and let's see if this is the time for you to jump into Mastery.
Here’s what you need to get…
It’s entirely possible to have time off where you can be completely present with your loved ones, and still keep your branding agency thriving, no matter where you are at right now.
It just takes some planning and setting boundaries. Remember, you’ll come back refreshed and rejuvenated and your business (and your life) will thank you for it.
P.S. You can always jump on a call with my team if you want to fast-track your planning and goal setting, and learn all my other tools and strategies to scale up your agency - just go here to get started!