NextGen Know-How: How I started taking unplugged vacations
Prevent burnout and anxiety by setting expectations and taking these proactive steps before your much-deserved time off.
In mid-August, our family took a 10-day vacation to Nashville, where we stayed on a 200-acre working ranch with horses, a pool and a spotty internet connection. Two years ago, I would have panicked at the thought of not being able to check my work email, but on this trip, I deliberately unplugged from work—no emails or phone calls for eight of the 10 days. This is progress for me. Although I’ve rarely brought “real” work on vacations, up until two years ago, I always checked my email several times a day to make sure I wasn’t missing anything or to answer simple questions. The problem was that I never really disconnected enough to actually enjoy my vacations—there was always an underlying sense of anxiety about what was going on at work.
This all changed when I joined a program for entrepreneurs. It was there that my coach introduced me to the entrepreneurial time system, which included “free days.” Free days are 24-hour periods of complete disconnection from work—no email, no phone calls, no reading any business material. The idea is for you to free your mind and focus on other activities you might enjoy. (For me that includes drinking wine, massages, playing tennis or hiking.) This concept seemed crazy to me at first. What if a potential client emailed me? What if one of my CEO clients had a question? What if people were annoyed they had to wait for me to get back to them?
In February 2018, I tested the concept on an eight-day vacation we planned at a resort in southern Virginia. Day one and two were very challenging for me. I found myself frequently grabbing my phone out of habit, but the only things I could check were my personal email and Facebook. I felt an underlying sense of anxiety as I wondered what I could be missing at work. And then something magical happened. By day three, the anxiety had disappeared. I was actually enjoying our vacation—truly enjoying it—without thinking about work. My husband and I went on a hike and had a great conversation, and I wasn’t constantly distracted by things I couldn’t do anything about.
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