For the past three years, I’ve taken a “sabbatical.” I spend the month of June traveling with my family.
Sure, I check in now and then but for the most part, I am decidedly not working.
For the first ten years of running my own business, I couldn’t take a single full day off. I always had something to do, something that required my attention.
It was exhausting and frustrating, for me and my travel partners (my husband and family). My husband is a teacher, so summer is the only time we can travel.
I spent most of our honeymoon cruise to Alaska hunting for a MacBook charging cord as I’d forgotten mine in a hotel room, then paid a fortune to use the on-ship PCs to get my work done. My mom stopped making plans when we’d visit because she knew I had to spend half of every day working. I once managed a server outage from a ski lift, emailing and calling between my team and our clients. I finished a UX design from the hospital bed while in labor with my daughter.
Then, three years ago, I just decided to go for it. I trained and trusted my partner and team to handle anything that popped up, and I went. I traveled to Spain, so in addition to the huge geographical distance, the time change also made communication difficult – which meant the team had to navigate my absence on their own.
Best decision ever, for me and for my team. And I’ve continued it the past two years. I’ll continue it
They get the time and space to make important decisions. I get to practice trust and test my leadership. When I get back to the office, we review what worked, what didn’t, what information was incomplete or unavailable.
It’s been amazing. I don’t check my email before getting out of bed. I don’t spend hours returning emails. I get to enjoy time with my husband and kiddo and parents. I get to adventure and explore my passions and recharge my batteries.
I get to take time to breathe.