3 Sneaky Ways to Get Work Done While Still Enjoying Your Vacation
Last month, we shared some of our favorite destinations for founder CEOs and their families. Of course, summer is when lots of families are traveling and taking advantage of their kids being out of school. However, most CEOs don't have the luxury of taking every moment of their vacation off of work. In fact, according to The Harvard Business Review, CEOs work on 70% of their vacation days for an average of 2-3 hours (it takes a lot to keep a company running!).
The study also found that making time to enjoy life is one of the biggest indicators of how well a CEO will do. In a sense, the time a chief executive spends asleep is a surrogate for everything else—the amount of time a CEO can set aside for their family, other personal pursuits, and even hobbies.
And it's not just the quality of life CEOs should consider when rushing from one meeting to another, but the quantity of life as well. Most leaders understand this intuitively, if only through experience: The more time you spend working, the less time you have to connect with others and recharge.
Which means that vacation time should be treated like true time off as much as possible. And while you may not be able to avoid work altogether on your vacation, there are a few sneaky ways to make time for work that doesn't take away from family time or enjoying the experience of being out of the office.
Here are three sneaky ways to get work done while still enjoying your vacation.
#1 Take advantage of travel time
In an article for INC.com, Katlin Smith, the founder, and CEO of Simple Mills (a brand at the forefront of the clean-ingredient, natural food movement), explained how she spent most of her time. In that accounting, she said she'd flown 140,243 miles and accrued 93 Hours "Sitting In An Uber or Lyft To/From the Airport."
And an analysis of the National Household Travel Survey found that Americans travel hundreds of miles for most vacations. This means – for vacation or work – chances are, you'll spend lots of time traveling and waiting to travel. So if you know that part of your vacation will include downtime between or during flights or a long stretch of a road trip, plan to use that time to get work done.
Before departing, you and your executive assistant can plan how best to use small spurts of time to get the most work done. Your EA can have files ready for you and plan what you'll have time to do and when you'll have time to do it. If you know you'll need that time off, you can also make sure your EA will be available during those hours to answer questions, send documents, or note where you start or leave off on a project.
#2 Take advantage of time differences
Many founders and CEOs travel across the country or the globe on business trips and vacations. And while jet lag can be a pain, the time differences can work to your advantage if you're trying to get things done for the office.
If you're in a different time zone from your team, consider getting as much done as possible in the hours that make sense for you. Then your team can leave questions with your EA or in your inbox. Your team gets everything they need, but you can work when it's best for your vacation or free time.
You can even ask your EA to get things set up for you if you know you want to work on a specific project. For example, they can send over documents or get all the information you'll need lined up and ready to use to hit the ground running when you're ready to work. Having a set time when you're working is also a great way to stay laser-focused.
In his 1955 humorous essay for "The Economist," Cyril Northcote Parkinson said that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion, and we couldn't agree more – especially when it comes to vacation time. Set a few hours to get work done, and plan something to look forward to at the end. (At Execly, we believe you can't go wrong with a margarita or White Russian!).
#3 Set up specific times for check-ins
One of the keys to running a successful business anytime, but especially virtually or while you're on vacation, is to set business hours and stay on top of project management (both of which your EA can help with!). While vacationing, we recommend deleting work apps from your phone, moving them off your home screen, or turning off notifications. Then, set specific times throughout the day for check-ins. That way, you're not constantly getting email notifications at the beach or while trying to enjoy dinner.
You can also communicate with your EA to ensure you only receive emails from certain people or about specific projects. Anything that isn't time-sensitive can go into a folder or other place for you to check at a later time.
Pro Tip: If you decide only to have set hours, don't make yourself available to your team or others in your company outside of those hours. They'll start to expect a response during those times.
At Execly, we believe CEOs and founders need to care for themselves to show up as the best bosses and leaders possible. Take your vacation. You deserve it. And if you've got to sneak a little work in, set boundaries around it!
And, if you're interested in having an EA help you take the load off your plate and reclaim 20 hours a month, reach out to us. You stick to executing high-level strategies and growing your company, and we'll handle your calendar, email, and all the things in between.
