Enjoy Your Holiday: Get Ready & Enjoy

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By Brandie Kajino, The Home Office Organizer

Sparkplugging is starting a new tradition called ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired! The theme of this week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is Sparking an Idea for Enjoying a Holiday Business Free

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This upcoming weekend is a holiday weekend in the United States. Many people will take time off, and yet somehow the business of running their business will be in the back of their mind. How does one relax and enjoy an upcoming holiday? I’m a firm believer in taking time off, but you’ve got to have a few tricks up your sleeve. Here’s a few ideas:

Plan for it.

Have you heard that saying, “Plan your work and work your plan”? I love it! When it comes to taking time off on a holiday or vacation, you’ve got to plan ahead.

Set up an email auto-responder.
You know you’re going to get email, right? So why not let people know you won’t be around to answer them for a while? Set up an auto-responder to let people know when you’ll be gone and when you’ll be back. If you have a backup & clientele that may need help while you are out, be sure to include contact information for your backup person.

Simplify & make some decisions.
Are there things that can wait until you get back? What things must be done before you go? Simplify and make your life easier, but making some realistic decisions about what can and can’t be done before you leave. You may even find that some things really don’t need to be done at all!

Delegate or automate.
If you’re the type of person that will be thinking about work regardless, it might be time to delegate. Have a virtual assistant? Ask them to handle some things for you. The other thing you can do to make your life easier is to automate. Set up an email address specifically for the public to contact, and set up an auto-responder answering some FAQs. Tim Ferriss has some great ideas about this in his book.

Ditch the guilt.
Everybody needs some time off. Don’t beat yourself up because you are enjoying family, sunshine or just some time by a nice body of water. Take care of business before you leave so you can check out for a while. You’ll come back refreshed and ready to hit the ground running again.