How do you step away and actually take a vacation?

This is going to be a pretty simple answer today.

It’s not easy to do, but taking vacations and being able to step away from the freelance business for a day or a week can be scary.

From about 2004 to 2011 I didn’t take any days off.

There was no vacation, no hotel plans, no cruises, no car rentals, nothing that resembled any sort of pleasurable trip because I wanted to get away.

When was the last vacation you had? Maybe even years at some point where you didn’t get a break?

So why is that?

Big excuses is why!

• Too much work
• No time, I'll look into next year
• How will the business be when I get back?
• Will there be a business left?

So how do you step away?

Communication and planning!

Communicate with your clients as early as possible.

The earlier on, the better. Timelines, sales, and delivery may all need to be figured out. And the more time you have to plan all that out the better.

Give yourself a buffer before going away.

If you are taking a week off, don’t work yourself to the bone the week prior to going away. When you do that, you won’t give your brain a chance to wind down. It’ll be 2 or 3 days into your vacation before your brain stops doing all the behind-the-scenes thinking around all the work that was just completed.

If you are going away on the 14th for a week. Then plan all you need to do for the vacation and tell yourself that you are going away on the 7th. Giving you a full week buffer prior to vacation.

Then from the 7th to the 14th, you do the every day tasks you need to just as if it were a normal week.

Plan for the unexpected.

In other words, should something happen with a client that is an emergency, put in place a process by which that client can get the help they need.

If you have a helpdesk system, have a process by which your client can put in a specific subject line to an email that then gets forwarded to someone who can handle the request.

Make sure they are aware of what sort of issues you could be filtering their way and make it super simple for them get access to all the things they would need to resolve said issue.

Now go ahead, take that vacation. Force yourself, like my wife did to me, because you do deserve it.

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