How to get away without obsessing about work
You know the benefits of recharging your batteries without distraction. Here are some tips to help you get away.
Ever feel like e-mail is a leash? You can’t get away because you can always be pulled back? The work from home culture might have increased connectivity, although good managers and clients know you deserve private time. Often the problem is one we bring upon ourselves. I find it difficult to disconnect from work while on vacation. Here are some ways to do it.
1. Take long weekends. If you have three weeks paid vacation and you took it in days aligned with holiday weekends, you should be able to get away for a long weekend every month. You take off the Monday or Friday that’s not the holiday. You leave Thursday night. Being away for short periods can be pretty guilt-free.
2. Go where there’s no cell service. On longer vacations, you might want to consider someplace where the leash isn’t connected to the collar. We went to Lake Placid, up in Adirondack State Park in New York state. Cell service was a luxury outside the town or hotel! Let people know you will be unreachable.
3. Leave detailed contact instructions at the office. There might be emergencies. Leave every detail you can imagine with your assistant before leaving. The hotel phone number. Cell numbers for you and your spouse. Email addresses. They can reach out if you are really needed.
4. Be disciplined about limiting your calls to the office. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” doesn’t work for obsessive people like me. Regardless of where we are, I’ve got to call the office! I’ve learned to discipline myself to call only on Tuesday and Thursday. Two calls in seven days. Your assistant will likely say: “Why are you calling? Everything is under control.”
5. Check emails once a day. Email has a sense of urgency. We hear the “ping” and spring into action. When on vacation, I try to discipline myself to check only once a day. I also set up a mail folder labelled with the vacation’s name. I move everything that isn’t urgent (or deleted) into that folder, then I look at it upon my return.
6. Avoid financial news. I was a financial advisor, so this was an issue for me. Watching financial news on TV might get you upset. In rural France I would watch the French TV news. If they showed a stock exchange or trading room scene and people were typing quietly, things were fine. If they were screaming and throwing their arms in the air, the market was having a bad day. On one trip I wanted to get on the next plane home. A senior advisor in the office said: “Exactly what value do you think you would add hurrying back?” I stayed. The markets calmed shortly afterwards.
You don’t want to shirk your responsibilities, but having coverage in place while you are away should lessen your anxiety. The benefits of recharging your batteries without distraction should allow you to return to the office refreshed and ready to do lots of business.
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