I think every entrepreneur is guilty of this one. You plan a break, get everything prepared, do a bit of a handover and leave the office, ready for two weeks in the sun.
But as you’re packing your swimmers and beach hat, you see the laptop. I’ll just pop it in the case, you think. I won’t open it, but just in case. It doesn’t take up too much room.
But you can’t resist. You check your emails on the phone in the queue for the plane and when you get your destination, the first thing you find out is whether they have WiFi in the hotel. Pretty soon, you’re putting in three hours after breakfast and your partner is browsing “splitting assets” on their iPad.
No, no, no. Not this year. This year you need to leave the office confident that the place won’t fall in a heap because you are not there.
This means putting plenty of work in briefing key staff, slowing the business down so it only does as much as it needs and, most importantly, training yourself to switch off.
Don’t take the laptop. Heck, don’t take the phone. If you do any work, it should be daydreaming about strategy, not organising payroll.
Get it done – today! If you don’t , you won’t make it through next year.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
