One of the benefits of owning and operating your own business is that you can often take your work with you when you go out of town for a vacation. The flip side of this is that taking along the supplies (folders of papers and your computer) to do the work does not necessarily guarantee that you will get much work done. Based upon the past few years of my experience as a home – based professional, I have come to believe that the general rule regarding getting work done on vacation is “When planning your vacation, decide how much time you think you will devote to work each day and then divide that number in half to get the number of hours that you can reasonably expect to work.” That principle has proven itself to be accurate time and again, whether I was on a long road trip to Florida or a weekend away at my parents’ house for the holidays.
Vacation season is just about here, and hopefully you have one or more fun things planned. In order to be able to enjoy your vacations, be sure to plan your work around them. If you can, plan extra time into your schedule before each vacation so that you can try to get ahead on your work.
When you are on vacation, try to make doing your work as enjoyable as possible. For example, if the place where you are staying has a nice yard, a beautiful balcony, or any other inviting location where you can sit with your laptop, go there instead of holing up in your hotel room while everyone else enjoys the nice weather and scenery. Also, try to keep your communications to a minimum. Let your clients know that you will be on vacation and that you will only be able to answer their emails and voice mails once a day, around a certain time. Getting everyone on the same page regarding your availability is essential to being able to turn off your phone and tune in to your vacation experience.
Photo by bandini on morguefile.com.