How the self-employed can take more time off in 2022 (for me, as much as it is for you)

In a recent survey of business owners, over 50% of respondents said they took 20 days or less of annual leave last year.

Is that enough? I mean, in an employed role, I'd have at least 20 + public holidays. Probably paid too!

Some said that they didn’t really care about how many days they took because the big benefit for them was working whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted. Having that day-to-day flexibility was more important to them.

Others said that they did take time off but also sneaked in a cheeky bit of work over the weekend or during holidays, but that they didn’t mind because they were doing that for their own peace of mind and not because they were available to their clients.?

But a fair few, however, realised that they were having far less time off than they would have done in an employed role, and recognised they wanted to make changes in 2022.

I’ve realised that I fall in to the second two categories - I do take time off, but not as much as I want to. And when I do take time off, I’m still likely to do work on my own business - even if it’s checking my social media accounts while having a lazy PJ day.

And I want to change that because my business model means I am not one of the respondents who can choose to work wherever, whenever.

I’m available for clients five days a week. I commit to calls and projects and coaching months in advance. So when I don’t protect my time by figuring out when I want to take time off, I run the risk of taking a handful of days between Christmases and nothing more. And quite honestly, it’s not enough.

So this is for those of you who didn’t take enough time off last year and want to change that in 2022.

First of all - why aren’t we taking enough time off?

“My clients/team won’t cope without me!”

“The post-holiday inbox catch-up (and the gazillion emails to wade through) is enough to make anyone want to NOT take holiday!”

“I have the flexibility to work whenever I like so I don’t need to take a day off!”

And those are all 100% truths when *you* believe them to be true for you.

But my question for you is this:?

• What if you challenged those beliefs?
• What would the opposite look like?
• And, if you realise you do want to be taking more time off, what do you need to do and who do you need to be to make that happen?

Ideas for you to take more time off this year

You could hire the right time to support you. But that topic is for another day. For now - try this:

1. If you have children, add all the school holiday dates to your calendar and work out when you want to take time off to be with them / look at school holiday clubs / sort out childcare so that there isn’t a last-minute panic (been there, done that!).
2. While you’re there - check for those sneaky teacher training days when the school is open to teachers but not pupils (they’ve caught me out many-a-time!) and add those to your calendar / take time off / organise childcare.
3. Add all public holidays to your calendar and decide whether you want to take an extra day immediately before/afterwards
4. Add all chosen holiday dates to your calendar and mark days off as "busy" so you don’t get double booked
5. Look at the year as a whole - are days off spread out so you have dates to look forward to? Do you need to make any adjustments?
6. Give your clients ample notice before you put on that out of office so that you have enough time to wrap up projects and give them peace of mind that everything urgent will be taken care of before you go.
7. Put your out of office on and whatever you do - protect the boundaries that you are setting for yourself and make sure don’t be tempted to reply to clients/customers while you’re away - by all means, have a little look through the inbox if that gives you peace of mind, but responding just as if you were at the desk? Please don’t set yourself up for burnout.

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