Clearing Space for the Holidays
One of the blessings of owning a service-based business is being able to set your own hours, and decide when you want to take time off. It takes some planning, especially for extended trips, holidays, or stay-cations, but with a little forethought, and extra effort beforehand, I’ve learned to enjoy the time with minimal guilt, and no pressure.
In years past, I’ve kept my blog queue filled at least 2 weeks ahead. Over the last year, it’s grown to 3, and even 4. My rule of thumb for vacations and holidays is to bump that up by a week or two, thereby giving me a cushion in case client demands are higher when I get back.
The same is true of any client work. Deadlines are pushed up on my side, and work is delivered before I leave. Though I allow limited contact while I’m gone, I set boundaries so my clients know I got their work done ahead of schedule for a reason, and especially during the holidays, in hopes they, too will give themselves some down time in as many areas of their business as possible.
Stepping Up the Pace Temporarily
In my opinion, it’s all well and fine to work 80 hour weeks once in awhile to manage special 
projects, or make space for an extended time away, but when those 80-hour weeks become the rule rather than the exception, it’s time to look at what you’re shouldering yourself, and what you need to streamline, outsource, or both. I don’t care who you are, it’s impossible to maintain that pace and your high level of quality. The human brain needs regular breaks.
Needless to say, the weeks, or even month before a trip are often filled with caffeine fueled energy as I knock out more than my usual number of pieces, and get everyone’s books up-to-date as of the last complete month. Books I want to read go in my suitcase, and movies are set up on my DVR to be watched after the frenzy of preparation is over. In my opinion, it’s worth it to be able to leave my office and computer behind for a week or two. I owe it to my family to give them my full attention during the holidays. In fact, I owe it to myself.
Like anything else, opening up time for relaxation and family are no different than scheduling your normal work load. In my case, it means bumping all deadlines up on Trello, the tool I use to manage my projects. It means adhering strictly to those deadlines, and allowing no room for slippage as I sometimes might. At the end of the day, I go back over my scheduled projects to see where I might need to work a little harder, smarter, or both in the following days.
Ensuring No One Suffers During Your Absence
One of the best lessons I finally learned was to treat my own projects like I would those of my best client, leaving the same amount of room for deadlines to slip, and setting due dates a couple of days before the actual drop-dead date. I don’t do this so I can miss the deadlines, or be loose about adhering to them. Instead, it gives me a special lift to hit those stricter deadlines, and sometimes, even beat them. For some reason, the closer I am to meeting my own requirements, the more I’m inspired to increase my efforts.
Of course, everyone has their own methodology for ensuring work is complete on time, every time. It’s different too if you have a team vs. doing everything yourself. Either way, it’s your name on the line, but when it’s all on you, there’s less of a review process. But trust me, with my own work, I read and re-read it several times before I push “Schedule” or “Send”, and usually leave a day or two in between before I do (hence the extra space between the deadlines on my project manager and the real ones) so I don’t fall into a trap of reading my own words less thoroughly. I’ve seen enough glaring errors in some of my past work to know you can’t be too careful during the editing process, especially when you’re self-editing.
Check Your Lists Twice
Self-checks can be even more critical when I’m doing accounting work. Transpositions, 
misplacements, and misclassifications can change someone’s entire financial picture, perhaps in a small way, but not always. Either way, those mistakes shake my credibility and I consider that possibility unacceptable. Clients put their trust in me to provide accurate information, and I take that trust very seriously.
What I’m trying to impart here is while getting ready for an extended absence, speed and volume might be important, but not at the expense of accuracy. As such, I leave myself enough time to go over all my work before it leaves my desk. I don’t want to get calls while I’m gone, read work I’ve published, or come back to a lot of corrections or worse, damage control. The time off is important; even essential, but being smart about how I clear the time is the most critical cog in the wheel.
So make that time for yourself. Get away and spend the holidays with family and close friends. But do so in a way that leaves you feeling relaxed both before and after the trip. In other words, work smarter, not harder, and you’ll give yourself a relaxing, stress-free break during the holidays, or whenever you give yourself a much-needed break from being a successful entrepreneur.
Does Your Holiday Preparation Need a Little Support?
Are you struggling to keep all your entrepreneurial balls in the air? Would you like to take a task or two off your plate? Maybe it’s content creation, or perhaps it’s getting your books in order and creating a budget. If this sounds familiar and you’re ready to streamline your life and give your business space to grow and thrive, CONTACT ME and let’s talk!
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a Holistic Ghostwriter, and an advocate for cats and mental health. Sheri 
believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income.
If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author. And check out her new group, Putting Your Whole Heart Forward.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming releases of ” Rebuilding After Suicide” and “Sasha’s Journey”.
