Time Off

So this is a, I guess a short answer for Lauren McGinnis from Vancouver, Canada, who had a question about how entrepreneurs can take time off. I guess it's kind of the excuse that we always feel like we have too much to do and we're always really busy. And I think often entrepreneurs tend to feel like it's hard to tell our employees why we're taking time off as well. But the reality is I've never met an entrepreneur yet who, especially in their startup phase or, you know, in the first number of years of running the company, aren't working 60 hours a week. You know, the reality is your employees, at most are working in the 40 to 50 range. You know, maybe they're working 50 to 60, but your employees already know that you're working around the clock. So it's usually a guilt thing that the CEOs have to detach from. And then it's also kind of reestablishing some hobbies and re establishing some passions that you used to have in your life. I think we also tell ourselves or give ourselves the excuse that we're busy and we're just catching up or we just got to work through a project. But the reality is you're never going to catch up. You're never going to get it all done. So you just actually have to decide that you're going to book some time off. So I take 10 weeks vacation every year in my calendar, 10 full paid weeks off, or I'm paying myself, but I take 10 weeks off. And then I take all my weekends off, Saturdays and Sundays as well. I will occasionally be catching up on something, but it's usually legitimately catching up on something or, you know, when I've been in this quarantine period for the last. This is my sixth quarantine during COVID where I'm not allowed to leave the property for 14 days. I've tended to become, you know, a little bit more of a workaholic through those parts because I can't go anywhere, I can't do much. So I'm kind of plowing through stuff. But when you're working at night and working on weekends, that tends to be an excuse that you're giving yourself for being busy because you're never going to catch up. You'll just set more goals, you'll buy another company, you'll spin off a division, you'll start your next idea. So the reality is you just do have to take some time off. What I've started doing in the last couple of years is I Take every Friday off. I think I work one Friday out of every four. My assistant books them off completely in my calendar. So I was look at my calendar right now, Friday is completely booked off. And yeah, actually I have one call on Friday this week and that's it. So the rest of the day is off. I also book time in my calendars with my kids. I book their holiday time in my calendars so I know when to start coordinating my time. I pre plan vacations so that I have time in my calendar for that as well. And then just reattaching yourself to hobbies. So take a look at all the stuff that you used to love to do. Make a list of all the stuff that you do for fun. Maybe you've got 10 things on there like skiing or going hiking or playing tennis or cooking or having dinner parties or going traveling. Make a list of all the stuff that gives you joy and gives you energy. And then make a list of all the people that you like doing it with. Who are the people that you like having fun with doing those activities? And then make a commitment to yourself how many times you're going to do each of those things over the next quarter. So, you know, if it's wintertime, make a commitment for skiing, make a commitment for going snowshoeing, make a commitment for dinner parties, whatever, but make a commitment to those and treat them like a business goal that you're breaking down in reverse engineering and put those things into your calendar and that's where you'll start to get some more fun. And then when you're away, if you're, you know, way traveling away, working, try to disconnect from work while you're traveling as well. Get out of that, get out of the hotel, go for a walk, go for a run, go for a hike, go explore, you know, do the hop on, hop off buses, whatever it is, but try to see the different cities that you're in so that you can explore a little bit more and it doesn't feel like all work and no play. I've also started to spend my time on planes working where I'm really trying to get a lot of work done on the planes. But when I'm at home, I try to disconnect and hang out with my kids or hang out with my friends. So I hope that's helpful. And Lauren, thanks again for the question.