How Founders Can Take Leave Without Monitoring Every Notification

If you’ve set up a business and you’re struggling every day to keep it not only running, but thriving, then you might find it difficult to switch off. Whenever you turn away, you might feel the stress that comes with surrendering control. And when you’re being bombarded with business-related smartphone notifications, this problem becomes even more difficult to ignore.

But, for the preservation of your sanity in the long term, you need to be able to take a break. When you’ve reclaimed that little bit of mental energy, and obtained a little distance and perspective, you might find that you have much greater energy and clarity when you do eventually get back into the office, and that your business prospers as a result.

But having been convinced of the benefits of taking a break, you might still worry about what will happen in your absence. Let’s look at the plans you might make so that you can get away and enjoy yourself, without interruptions and stress.

Create clear communication boundaries before you leave

To begin with, you’ll want to make sure that your workers aren’t going to call you while you’re away, unless there’s a genuine emergency that really requires your attention.

Putting in place a clear set of procedures around escalation, and setting out clear boundaries, might help your teams to operate without your input. But as well as changing the systems, you’ll also want to make sure that you have people in place whom you trust.

Reduce notification dependency through systems and delegation

Constant phone-checking is unhealthy and counterproductive. But you might still want to check in at fixed moments while you’re away. Having a system for automation and reporting might help to ensure you can check in and get a brief overview of the situation, without trawling through an ocean of notifications and emails.

You might have a single trusted point of contact within your organisation, whose job it is to reassure you, and to filter out the extraneous noise so that you can get on with the job of enjoying your break.

As well as this, you’ll want to try to reduce the workload that comes with your holiday itself. It’s for this reason that all-inclusive holidays are so beneficial.

Return to work without undoing the benefits of your break

When your holiday is finished, your first instinct might be to dive straight back into work, and make up for lost time. But this is often a mistake that undoes the mental health benefits of the holiday.

Have a schedule for reacclimatisation that deliberately slows you down and hands back control of the organisation gradually.