A reflection: Re-writing summer time off
This summer, I scheduled some time off for a week at a cottage with a commitment - no emails and no work time.
And it worked. Well, kind of.
Look, I am part of an amazing team. Emails were covered, invoices were managed, sessions happened, everyone supported each other, and I still thought about work. I can’t help it, my brain is constantly thinking about the SYC. But the problem is the significant guilt that comes with it and all the “shoulds” - I should be able to let it go, I shouldn’t think about work so much, I should just tune out. And the “shoulds” started to get in the way of my time away.
So I did what I do when I need to think, and I went for a run (and I needed a good think, so it was a long one) and I came to a realization: the pressure I feel to disconnect from work doesn’t actually come from me but from this external idea of what time off means and should look like. And my reality, as the owner of a small business and someone who thoroughly enjoys what they do, is that I don’t like the all-or-nothing time off. It doesn’t work for me. A couple days of disconnecting? Brilliant. A change in routine? Bring it on. But a full shut-off from something I enjoy and something that keeps going without me? It detracts from down time and makes the return-to-work more stressful than it needs to be.
So I’ve decided I’m going to make a shift (even if it is counter to what other people think I should do) and let myself live in a grey-zone. I’ll take the couple days here and there to completely disconnect and then if I’m lucky enough to have a longer stretch off I’m going to pop into the ol’ inbox every now and then to see what’s going on. I might even draft and schedule some replies for when I’m back. I might even return a phone call. But at the end of the day I’m going to trust myself to know what I need and how to get it and who knows, it just might work…
So if you find yourself in a similar situation with juggling various needs and expectations, maybe this is the chance to check-in on where those expectations are coming from and consider if they’re working for (or against) you.
I hope that whatever your summer time off may look like, that it gives you what you need in the way you need it.
In solidarity to re-writing time off,
Colleen