By the end of this post, you should be ready to take a week or two off this holiday season so you can relax and refresh. These 3 tips are meant to be digestible, quick to implement and easy to scale to 10 or even 15 days if you need more time to enjoy with family or plan for your business!

There are already amazing resources out there on how to take a sabbatical from your business or preparing your business for maternity leave. We linked a few of our favorite resources at the end if you’re looking to take a longer break from your business.

Time off allows you the mental distance from work to reconnect and be fully present for the people you love and gets you out of the “weeds” of day-to-day business tasks which often provides much-needed perspective, re-energizes you for your work and brings clarity for future business planning (2021 is just around the corner!)

But it’s easy to say that you are going to take time off and all-together different to actually do it.

That’s why we are here to help.  We’re confident these three tips will help you prep your small business for time off during the holidays.

Commit to these 3 steps and you will come back from the holidays refreshed and ready to do your best work!

 

TIP #1: PLAN AHEAD

The only way to truly unplug and disconnect is by planning ahead. You don’t want to have to worry about even pushing a button when you’re on your time off. Schedule in a couple of batch days so that you can work ahead on your social media content, blog posts and newsletters. It’s tedious work but so worth it in the end.

Simply put, a batch day will give you the chunk of time you need to focus on one specific task. Instead of bouncing around from task to task, grouping your to-do’s by “themes” will allow you to get more done within a block of time.

One example is Content Writing. You can schedule in a batch day to write all of your content for the upcoming week. This can include articles, newsletters and podcast transcripts and all of your captions for the week.

 

TIP #2: AUTOMATE & SCHEDULE

Unshameless plug but a service like Social Squares paired with tools like Later, Tailwind, Hootsuite or Buffer is your golden buzzer to scheduling out your content with ease.

If you post 1x per day to social, you have access to endless social media images within Social Squares that make content planning a breeze.  The same is true for creating and scheduling your Pinterest content with the help of Social Squares images.

It’s all about breaking down your schedule and planning it out in detail. Remember, some content going out is better than none. You by no means have to keep up with your regular content frequency. Just be consistent with whatever amount you choose.

Take a look at your Instagram Analytics right through the app to understand when your audience is online. This day and time is a good baseline to use as the time to schedule your content. You may notice a small variance day-over-day so always use the suggested time to roll out your content. Check out this helpful post if you need more help understanding your Instagram Analytics.

 

TIP #3: COMMUNICATE & ENJOY

Let your clients and customers know exactly what you’re up to and when you’ll be off for the holidays. Setting proper expectations is key!

Send a newsletter, communicate it via social media and save it as an Instagram Highlight so it remains top of mind. If you’re a solopreneur let them know you will not be answering DMs or comments and for anything urgent, to reach you via email or however you’re managing customer service inquiries.

Once you’ve taken the proper steps of communication, create an email autoresponder that reiterates your plans, how they can reach someone in case of anything urgent and when they can expect to hear back from you.

We promise all it takes is these 3 simple steps and you will be ready to take a week or two off this holiday season without feeling guilty or like something will be missed.

 

BONUS TIP:

The only way to truly unplug is to remove the temptation to “check-in” with things. Most likely the world will NOT fall apart if you go off the grid for the holidays so turn off e-mail, Slack, Instagram and any other notifications you get to your phone or watch so that you are not even tempted.

Bottom line, YOU are valuable enough to deserve to unplug from being a boss lady periodically. The world is better served by your skills and abilities when you are rested, refreshed and deeply engaged with the things that matter most to you in this life. The world will wait!

We hope you enjoyed these tips and that they help you take the time off that you so deserve! And if you’re looking to take a longer break or a sabbatical, here are some resources from industry friends that we absolutely love.

 

1. Prepping for maternity leave from Megan Martin Creative

2. Planning for extended time off from Nancy Ray

3. Another helpful maternity leave prep from Kat Schmoyer