Peanut and I are leaving for vacation in less than a week with her family. And I plan to do some work while I’m “on the beach.”
After all, this is one of the great promises you’ll unlock when you start your own freelance business and become your own boss, as they say—nevermind the slightest bit of sand turning your laptop into Anakin Skywalker quickfast, the waves creeping up the shoreline and threatening your entire vehicle in which to make money (as someone who just spilled water all over my MacBook and still dealing with the ramifications, this idea seems even sillier than it ever has), or the glaring of a thousand suns that prevents you from even seeing what’s on your screen without some fancy-schmancy screen protector that lets you see your screen in the sun.
Hence the quotes around “on the beach.”
In fact, I’m not sure if there are worse ways to be productive than to try to work on the beach.
And while I plan on doing some work when I’m gone, I’ve mastered the act of getting all my work done before vacation, so I can fully re-energize and plot and prod and plan my next big moves.
Here’s what I mean:
Most of my clients are already a couple weeks ahead of the game. Meaning, I have emails written, scheduled, or at least planned in my head for the next few weeks. So instead of spending this week writing emails for my clients to send this week, I’ll write emails for my clients to send a few weeks from now.
This is how I prevent fires while on vacation without having a staff or someone to even “man the ship” while I’m away. Also I tend to wake up earlier than normal when I’m on vacation, so I’ll have time in the early mornings to put out any fires that pop up or write any emails that need to be written before the day officially begins. And I’ve also found that I “conspire the forces of the universe” to help me find more clients when I’m traveling, so I come back to a bigger and healthier business.
However, this email ain’t about none of this.
The truth is I’ve had about six or seven things on my to-do list now for months. None of these items are urgent, but they’re all important. And, throughout the course of a regular week, I can simply leave them unaddressed until the next day, where they’ll become unaddressed until the following day. And this cycle repeats indefinitely.
Some of them are business related. Some are personal things. But they’ve quietly caused some mental stress because I haven’t addressed them in so long.
Well wouldn’t you know it, but the vacay I’m going on next week also helped me finally check these things off. Yesterday after doing a pretty hard workout (filled with yoga, trigger sessions, and hiking) for an “off day,” I sat down at my computer and finally crossed these things off.
And I’ll just be honest:
If I didn't have a vacation planned, I probably would’ve kept putting them off. Each of these items didn’t matter so much to the health or growth of my business, but they were things I needed to do.
So, why am I sharing this with you?
For one reason:
To prove, yet again, that taking vacations can be a growth hack of sorts to your business.
Do with this what thou wilt.
And y’know what?
When I first started my business, outside of a few hiking trips, I was allergic to going on vacation. I thought that my whole business would crash and burn without me showing up every day. But I’ve proven this will not happen with each successive vacation I’ve been on.
Mayhap you feel the same way.
That said, having an email professional on your team is another way to become “okay” with leaving your business for a week or two—and returning to it being bigger, better, and more profitable.
So, hit reply and let’s chat. And who knows, I might just convince you to enjoy your hard work with a vacation in the next couple o’ months.
John
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