Learn tips and strategies for maintaining a healthy work-life balance while running a successful business and keeping clients satisfied. Discover how to take breaks without sacrificing your business goals.
Are you someone who is dreads taking time off work, or even avoids it?
With the school holidays and easter just around the corner there are many of us feeling the dread of either taking time off, or juggling the kids at home during this time. How will you be able to keep the wheels turning? I know as a small business owner I always find it hard to take time off and be able to trust that things won’t fall to pieces.
So if you feel this too, know that you’re not alone!
We can get scared to take time off BUT if even big businesses can close for weeks over holiday periods - you too are allowed to shut up shop and take a break even just for a few days!
So, if you are worried about how to switch off or manage holidays - here are some simple strategies that will help your business running, and even keep your clients happy WHILE you have a break.
Communicate with your clients: If you are taking time off, let them know! Everyone needs a break and it’s totally okay to email your clients to advise which days you’ll be closed / off and what you’ve got in place that they can do / contact in emergency.
Turn on your out of office and voicemail: This may seem obvious but I’m always surprised how many of us don't put on our out of office and then are constantly checking our emails.. Once the OOO is on, you can switch off a bit more. In your OOO include details of what people can do or who to contact in an emergency.
Brain Dump: Often we feel we will never get everything done before we take a break, and here’s the truth - you probably won’t! So, brain dump everything that you feel needs to be done and the categories with what is actually urgent VS what can wait. If there are things you won’t get done before the break that are still important or urgent you can consider delegating, or diarising this for when you return (and updating anyone affected that it will be done by x date).
Delegation: If you have a team or a VA, delegate as much as you can to them before you go (ideally you can use a system like Trello or Asana to set and manage tasks). Yes I know it may not be done perfectly the way you do it, but it will be good enough. This is the power of setting up strong systems and structure in advance so that this is possible for you to take time off anytime.
Contingency planning: Sometimes we prevent ourselves from switching off by worrying about everything that could go wrong, so write a list of everything that could go wrong, and write down what you can put in place to prevent or handle those situations, or look at what you simply don't have any control over and consider accepting that.
Plan ahead: If you’re going to be juggling kids at home, sit down as a family and plan out the days as to who is looking after the kids on which day so it’s clear in advance when you’ll have opportunities to work, and consider adjusting your voicemail your out of office to show those times you'll be available. Many of your clients will be in the same boat!
Schedule in your social media in advance: Use a system like later or even just the scheduling tool within Meta to schedule your social media posts in advance (including letting them know you’re closed/off for a few days)
Mindset: Sometimes it comes down to our own belief, if we don't believe we can take time off and everything will fall apart…. Well that is our reality. If we can practice shifting our mindset to believe that it’s okay to take time off, and that everything is figure-out-able, then that can become your reality. It is possible to let go of the fear you carry.
What do you think? What could you try from this list?
If you can even practice implementing a few of these strategies it might just allow you to let go of the dread and maybe even look forward to having a break!
However you spend it, try to switch off and recharge xx
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