In the world of Internet marketing it’s tricky to stay balanced. Sometimes we procrastinate and need to give ourselves a kick in the butt but more often than not, we don’t stop and smell the roses often enough because we’re so passionate about our business.
The holidays are a great time for spending time with family and reflecting on what’s most important. How do you keep your business running during this time without alienating those around you who don’t understand that there isn’t a lot of time off for entrepreneurs? It can be tricky to simply go on holidays when you have a business to run and want to keep income streams flowing.
Holiday Time Management Ideas
- Work really hard the few weeks before the holidays and then take time off entirely
- Take time off and spend just 1 hour a day managing the ‘must do’s’ each day
- Hire a virtual assistant and offer them extra incentive to work over the holidays for you. They might not want to work Christmas day but could help you throughout the rest of the week between Christmas and the New Year.
- Set your ‘out of office assistant’ on your e-mail and autoresponders so that clients / customers / colleagues will understand the delays
- Put cash aside throughout the year to take care of holiday down time so the time off won’t attack your bank account
Regardless of whether you take a day off or a week off it is important to take time for yourself and your family. After all, isn’t being an entrepreneur about freedom and flexibility?
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2012
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean,
This is great advice. I think it’s really important to find a balance between working and relaxing. I think we are better for it when we take a break. We tend to come back ready to get stuck in again. Whereas if we don’t take a break away from it, we can get jaded and burnt out.
Besides, if we don’t spend time with our family and friends along the way; they won’t be there when we have the time and money to see them.
Agree with you 100% Jazz
If we don’t take care of ourselves we will be no good to anyone or our business. And we will not have what we are doing this all for. A family to be able to enjoy life with.
Balance in our life is essential and managing our time gives us more freedom to do the MUST DO things. angus@angus-mcdonald.com is currently under construction
Hi Sean
This is a really good article for me because I can easily keep going and going until someone pulls my battery out, especially when I get passionate about something.
As I start to go through my plans for the second half of the year (when I get time to that is lol)
I am definitely going to factor in holidays this year. Usually I go overseas to somewhere tropical so I am forced to relax and I only run the beaches once a day instead of twice!
This year I will be staying at home and very close to my office so I will make sure I have a good 2 weeks of leisure, reading and painting…. ahhh roll on holidays.
I wish I could manage my time better, I haven’t had a real holiday for years, and it doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon.
I always thought at this time in my life I would be one of the Grey Nomads, traveling the parts of this country I haven’t seen yet, then planing an overseas trip, not looking after babies again. Ah well !!! Being Nanna has lots Joy attached.
The time balance is really important – not just during the holiday season, but also school holidays and evening when you are working on your IM business.
There are times during the year where you just need to step away for long periods of time and not worry that things are going to collapse because you have put the hard work in and tried really hard to keep things going seamlessly.
I know Sean that you take your laptop away with you when you go on holidays……and I am sure that you can find that balance!