How to Plan Your Work and Schedule a True Vacation
Taking a true break from work on vaction
When you’re a freelancer or business owner, it can be hard to allow yourself to take a break. Just because you don’t work in a more traditional setting with vacation time and PTO doesn’t mean you should expect yourself to work nonstop, 365 days a year. In fact, while taking time off can feel like it will set you back at work, you are your business — so the act of taking care of yourself is ultimately the most important thing you can do for your business.
Whether you have employees working for you, or you’re a one-person show, taking a vacation can feel logistically impossible. Here are some guidelines for planning your work so you can schedule a true vacation, seamlessly.
The importance of taking true vacations
When you’re a business owner, the mere thought of fully unplugging for even a long weekend can be terrifying. You might feel as though if you slow down for even a moment, you will lose the momentum you’ve spent so much time building. Learning to create a mindset of abundance can ease your anxiety — reminding yourself that your skills are valuable and needed, neither of those things will change after just a few days (or even a week!) out of the office.
For many freelancers, our office is online. This means it can be incredibly tempting to keep one foot in the door while on vacation — answering just a few emails or taking just one or two client calls.
However, the case for taking a break (and I mean a real break) is a strong one. Working nonstop takes a serious toll on our mental, emotional, and even our physical health (stress wreaks havoc on the mind and body!). Thankfully, burnout and stress are completely avoidable — but only if we vow to take care of ourselves.
Designing your freelance business to make vacations possible
If you can, designing your freelance business in such a way that vacations are possible makes it much easier to plan time away. Here are some ways that you can create a lifestyle that is more aligned with taking time off:
Avoid taking on too much work in the first place. When you have your own business, taking time off might mean having to get ahead of things by taking on a little extra work in the weeks prior to your vacation. But if you’re so overwhelmed with work that you’re barely able to stay afloat, let alone get ahead of things, taking a vacation is going to feel insurmountable.
Create structures that enable you to schedule deliverables in advance. For time-sensitive deliverables, like blogs or social media posts, tools like Hootsuite or Zapier make it possible to schedule content to be posted in your absence.
Build PTO income into your freelance rates. For most business owners and freelancers, time away means time without pay. That’s why it’s critical to account for time off and sick time in the rates that you charge your clients. If you know you’ve built in extra income, you’ll feel less afraid to take time off when you need it.
Have someone on deck that you trust to subcontract for you if needed. Finding a trusted colleague that you can train to cover your work can be helpful to provide a more seamless experience for clients. If you’re working with a subcontractor, you’ll want to make sure that you orient them to your work and introduce them to your clients well in advance.
How to plan ahead to schedule a vacation
Once you’ve decided to take a vacation, here are the steps you should take to get ready:
Notify your clients and let them know what to expect. Send your clients an email at least two to three weeks before your vacation begins. Let them know the dates you will be away and how this will affect any deliverables they’ll need from you. If you need to push work off until after you return, this is a great time to propose a new deadline.
Work ahead where you can. If your work allows for it, one way to take time off is to get ahead by working a little extra each day so your deliverables are done before you step away from your desk. If you can’t complete everything, working ahead is still a good idea because it will allow you to feel more on top of things before you leave, which will make it easier to fully unplug.
Delegate wherever possible. Don’t try to do everything on your own if you don’t have to! Preparing to take time off is a great opportunity to practice delegating tasks to others on your team if you have one.
Set up an autoresponder to answer queries and emails for you. Creating an “out of office” notification while you’re away will bring you peace of mind, knowing that incoming emails will be taken care of. Include the date others can expect to hear from you in your autoresponder.
Setting boundaries while on vacation
It’s tempting to check your email, be available for emergencies, or continue to attend meetings while on vacation. But if you set up these expectations with a client early on, it can be difficult to backtrack in the future.
While on vacation, it’s important to set boundaries. Remind your clients of your vacation about a week before you go, and ask them if there are any last-minute tasks that need to be addressed. Let them know that anything else will need to wait until you come back.
I also highly recommend planning to take an extra day off when you come back to let yourself get caught up on emails, laundry, and any errands — there’s nothing worse than returning home, jetlagged, to an onslaught of emails and tasks!
If you absolutely must be available to do time-sensitive work, schedule specific hours of the day during which you will be available, and be sure to stick to those times.
The big message:
Do it for your OVERALL well-being. Taking vacations isn’t just critical to maintaining your mental, physical, and emotional health. It’s also an amazing opportunity to fire up your creativity, fill you with new experiences, and give yourself the downtime you need to come up with your next great idea.
Being a business owner is rewarding, exciting, and even liberating, but it can also be challenging. It requires learning how to be your own favorite boss — the kind who encourages you to take care of yourself.
If you’re feeling lost…
Let’s chat in a one-on-one alignment session. I’ve spent years cultivating my own work culture as a freelancer and later as the owner of Sereth Design. These experiences have taught me so much, and I’d love to share what I’ve learned with you. During our call, we’ll discuss your sticky points and help you come up with a game plan that feels right for you.
