Photo courtesy of Kathy Nelson

We live in a busy and crazy world.  We can be pulled in a hundred different directions from our vocations, avocation, and kids’ activities. Even though our children are young adults I remember when we shuttled back and forth from home to school five times in the same night.  There were times when we went to two different ballgames in towns that were over an hour away from each other to watch the first half of one game and watch the second half of the next.  It was a lot of fun but a little crazy. Building margin in our lives can be challenging.

Based on the popular StrengthsFinder 2.0 personality assessment tool, my top personality strength is Achiever.  Tom Rath author of StrengthsFinder 2.0 describes people with this characteristic as: “…having a great deal of stamina and work hard.  They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.”  This can be both an asset and a liability. I derive a great deal of satisfaction in getting things done. The dark side of this strength is that I find it hard to turn off my mind and relax.  I have to work at creating margin for family, friendships, and relaxation.

Whether you are a solopreneur, have a team, or run a small business it is difficult to make room for down time.  Taking a vacation or a long weekend to relax can be a challenge since you still need to return calls and respond to emails.  If you find it hard to relax, try these strategies to turn off work and unplug.

Five strategies to take care of customers and still enjoy time off

1)      Set up specific times to take care of business.

I recommend scheduling a short block of time to check your voice mails and emails. What I do is schedule 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.  By scheduling a couple of time blocks for business its allows me to focus on business for these two periods of time and then focus on relaxing and enjoying the vacation the rest of the time.

2)      Inform key customers that you will be on vacation.

If you have customers that contact you on a regular basis let them know that you will be less accessible for a period of time.  If you have team members let your customers know that they will be able to handle their needs.

3)      Set up auto responders for missed calls.

The voice mail service that I use can be set to auto send a text for missed calls.  This can be an effective way to let callers know that you will return their call at a specific time.

A text could read:  “Hi, I’m taking a few days of R&R so responding to voice mails will be a little slower. I will contact you between 8 to 8:30am or 4 to 4:30pm.”

4)      Set up auto responders for email.

Auto reply emails are a great way to inform senders that you are out but will contact or respond to their email at a specific time.  An auto responder tutorial can be found at: Microsoft Office tutorial

Set up a private email account for team members only. By having a private email account you can check this one account to see if there are any important and urgent items that need your attention.

5)      Unplug from social media.

Disable Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook push accounts. To avoid distractions from social media updates just turn them off so your phone or iPad isn’t being updated during the time you should be enjoying some R&R.

Hopefully these steps help you to get out of work mode when you unplug and stay focused on relaxing to recharge.

Question: As a small business owner, solopreneur, or responsible for a team how do you build margin in your life to recharge and stay productive?  You can leave a commit below.

Quote of the Week: “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius

For more information about Radon Mitigation in homes, schools and commercial buildings visit us at www.nelsonradon.com.