We left early Monday morning last week for the first “real” family vacation we have had in over a year. We are now back from PEI and we had an amazing time eating lots of great local island food, going to the beach, bonfires and hitting the water slides in Cavendish.  

However, for entrepreneurs, it is sometimes hard to break away from your business when on vacation.  This time I decided it was critical to find time to get away, recharge the batteries, re-boot the mind, and, most of all, STOP THINKING ABOUT THE BUSINESS FOR 5 MINUTES ALREADY, WILL YA?

Here are 3 small tips I would like to share with you, which I hope help you plan for your next vacation.

1.  Pick a date and make it happen no matter what

Get thinking about it sooner then later.  Talk to your team and your business partner(s).  Discuss it with your family. Figure out where you and your family want to go and then put it on the calendar and block out those days so nothing important gets scheduled during your special time.

2.  While you are away think of nothing

What I mean by this is live in the moment.  Don't worry about emails, meetings, cleaning the house, etc.  Just sit back and relax and enjoy the moment.  You can deal with whatever it is you might be thinking about when you return.  It is never as bad as you think.

3.  Disconnect

How do you think of nothing?  Be disciplined and really disconnect from all communications.  This was huge for me this time.  I still peaked at the odd email once in awhile, but nothing like before.  

How did I make sure I was at peace?  

Well first of all I have a great team and partner (Adrian) who were managing everything while I was gone.  Probably better then when I am there.  :-)  Second, our customers are awesome and they understand the importance of breaking free from the daily grind.  And third, I set up, what I think was a killer autoresponder that let everyone know what I was up to and where they could go if they needed to find an answer.  This became very easy to do after reading the 4 Hour Workweek.  Here is what I used for an autoresponder.  I had some fun with it as you will see.  I actually tweaked the autoresponder below from one of the comments on Tim's Blog.

Subject: I’ll be back August 23rd…

Message:

Hey, it’s Chris here…

Thanks for the note - I'm currently off email until August/23. So in order to not have a bazillion emails (yes, this is a scientific number, I counted) when I return - your message has been deleted.  This way I'm not overwhelmed with playing "catch-up" and I can hit the ground running and give you the immediate attention you deserve when I get back.

But have no fear -- if you need an immediate response, please email my Rock Star partner, Adrian - email address or just shoot me a note after August 23rd.

However, if you really need something urgently - click on this link http://awayfind.com/chrisnadeau and a text message will be sent to me or try bribing Adrian to find me. (I hear he loves red wine!) 

Best, 

Chris

 I used Awayfind for the texting option, however, I didn't get it working properly for the text messages, but I could check special messages and there wasn't one emergency the entire week.  There never really is a real emergency in business if you really think about it.  :-)  Also, I don't think Adrian was bribed with any red wine.  If he was he better share it.  :-)

I hope you find this useful and please share any tips you have when shutting things down for vacation.

Look at how much fun we had!