If you thought getting time off as an employee was hard, welcome to being an entrepreneur. It’s even harder over here.
There’s no clocking in and out for your business – it’s a 24/7, 365 commitment. There’s never not going to be something to do, but you NEED to detach and take a mental and physical break. If you don’t, you’re facing serious burnout.
I know that the thought of stepping away makes you cringe because I’ve been there. But I promise you if you plan, automate, and delegate right then you have nothing to worry about.
You’re not a brain surgeon and everything will be ok!!
Planning in Advance
Plan as far in advance as you can for taking time off. Make sure you write out every detail of everything that needs to be done before that time and outline a game plan to knock it all out.
You’ll probably have to work harder during the time leading up to your break so plan for some longer or more intense days, but it’s worth it.
Let your clients & staff know that you’ll be unreachable for that period of time, and give them a deadline for submitting any new work or projects to allow yourself enough time to complete them. Think about how large the projects or tasks that come your way usually are, and overshoot the amount of time it’ll take x2 for clients since you’ll have a lot on your plate. Don’t be afraid to have a waitlist for clients either! Your stuff is GOOD, and when someone really wants to work with you they’ll wait.
Automating & Delegating
If you’re not automating and delegating, what are you doing?
There are too many digital tools out there designed to automate and simplify your everyday functions for you to feel like you need to constantly be present. Some small and simpler things you can do are setting up a vacation response to let people know that you’re currently unavailable or pre-scheduling your social media content and outsourcing community engagement to a Community Manager or VA to make your audience stays nurtured.
Disconnect but Stay Connected
As a service provider, it might be impossible for you to step away from your business for extended periods of time without checking in or making sure the world isn’t burning down while you’ve been sipping martinis in Cabo – and that’s ok. If you have an internal system set up where you’re setting aside small chunks of time to check in on everything, you can eliminate the anxiety that ‘not knowing’ feeling brings and STILL turn off your notifications.
Start yesterday when it comes to automating functions of your business that don’t need you present for your mental sanity. Don’t wait until it’s time to go on vacation to get started because those types of processes will need refinement.
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