6 Tips for Staying Off Your Phone During a Much-Needed Vacation From Your Business

You’re on the beach with the family, and all seems right with the world. As you lean back in your chair watching the kids splash around in the waves, you bask in the glow of a long overdue and well-earned vacation. Visions of leisurely dinners, ice cream cones, miniature golf or gazing at sunsets fill the space that meeting agendas, project plans and paperwork once occupied.

That is until the buzzing of the electronic leash in your pocket pulls you from a daydream back into the reality of the office you left two days ago. You feel the vibration and hear the generic ding that can only mean an alert from one of your coworkers. The message starts with “Sorry to bother you on vacation…” Your significant other gives you that icy stare as they realize they’ll be the ones taking the kids for ice cream solo. This is the frustration of a vacation with your body in one place and your head in another.

Let’s take a look at some strategies that can help small business owners unplug from work while on vacation.

Start before you leave

Notifying your team members of your intentions and setting boundaries early can go a long way to creating less stress while you’re gone. Often, interruptions during vacation occur because the people back at the office simply don’t know who else to call.

Communicate with employees

Have a meeting with everyone who will be handling things while you’re gone. For most founders it’s unrealistic to assume everything will go perfectly if you’re going to be away for a week or longer.

The folks holding down the fort need to know who besides you can put out fires while you’re out of the office and, presumably, in do-not-disturb mode. So set things up where they can attempt to solve the issue internally before having to bring you in.

Establish what constitutes an “emergency”

There are undoubtedly times when an interruption while on vacation actually requires a founder’s attention. However, they are likely the exception and not the rule.

A problem at work does not always require an immediate response. Go through likely issues with employees, and answer questions about them in order to put them in their proper perspective.

The goal here is for your team to learn ahead of time whether or not the issue can be handled by someone else or if it can simply wait until you can get back. It’s also important to determine if a problem could result in an interruption in business or loss of revenue. Getting workers to think about these issues also helps them take more ownership of problems as they come up.

Let them communicate with you, but within boundaries

Even though you’re supposed to be on a vacation, employees will feel better knowing that the boss is abreast of what is going on back home. But a cell phone constantly going off during family time, meal time and relaxation time is a distraction for you and an annoyance to those you’re supposed to be spending time with.

Before you leave, consider arranging for someone at the company to send daily summaries to your email that you can reply to in the evening once the day is done if you like. An entrepreneur can be kept abreast of what’s going on without feeling that they have to constantly check in, or that employees need to constantly bug the boss.

Plan ahead for your return to the office

Remember that meeting you had before you left? Schedule another for the day or week you return.

Don’t schedule it for the first thing in the morning. Give yourself time to sort through the backlog so you can attend the meeting prepared. This shows your staff you are back refreshed, reinvigorated and ready to give them your undivided attention.

Related: The Importance of Returning to the Office After Remote Working

Be consistent after you leave

Once you’ve left on your vacation, make sure you remember the directives you gave your employees before you left. If you want them to respect your boundaries while you’re away, then put things in place that set both you and them up for success.

Set time for no technology

It’s interesting that we call smartphones “phones” when they’re really powerful hand-held computers that happen to have the ability to make phone calls. Although calls can certainly interrupt you while you’re on vacation, it’s far more likely that your interruptions will come in the form of emails, texts or other notifications.

If you simply must set aside time to check in with the office, set daily limits for mobile phone use that won’t interfere with family time or simple unwinding. Back at the hotel or turning in for the evening, go ahead and use screen time to catch up on work email. When you’re heading out for activities or meals, leave the phone on silent or back at the hotel.

Turn off notifications

When your time needs to be focused on relaxation and family, save yourself from having to say “Nope. Not gonna answer that.” Silence your notifications, and don’t feel any shame about it.

Turning off notifications also removes distractions from apps like Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media, and push notifications from games. Eliminating connectivity separates you a bit from that dopamine or smartphone addiction. It also saves battery life by keeping your home screen from lighting up every five minutes.

A vacation is an investment in yourself

High-achieving go-getters out there sometimes view vacation as something lazy or unproductive. But there’s a reason why burnout happens. It’s the result of burning the candle at both ends for too long.

A vacation is more than just a break from work. Treat it as a digital detox. It’s a chance for your physical and mental health to recover and replenish so that you can return and be more productive than ever.