Startup Stories with Hilary Borndahl, August 2021: Take a time out!

You have vacation days, but are you using them? In my opinion,?for the brain to completely shut off the work valve you need a full week away.?Not three days here or there, a full nine?days including weekends.??

Our family did just that in July when we headed up to Family Lodging at?YMCA Camp Wanakita . Since childhood Wanakita has been my happy place. Where you go to “have the time of your life”.?Where I attribute the best of my leadership skills and training, even more so than my Commerce degree or corporate executive leadership training programs. Seriously, if you have not been to camp - go as an adult, take your family - you won’t regret it.?

Back to the story. Cell reception at Wanakita is terrible, and what a total blessing that is.?For the first time since launching this business in January, I completely unplugged for a week.?How did I make this possible for myself days after we just sold our first big CPG deal??Here are three tips:

1. Let everyone know you’re going on vacation! Communication is everything. People want to respect boundaries and it’s easier to do that when you communicate your own. I came back to only 40 non-junk emails, easily addressed the morning of my return.
2. Have a clearly defined backup plan. My OOO was set to Rachel and she has my cell # and the location of the camp. Should there be an emergency, I knew she’d call me.
3. Trust that you will be 200% more productive upon your return. In the 2 days I was back at my desk I cleared more items off my to-do list than in the full week before departure.?My battery was fully recharged.?

We still have a full month of summer left. I’ll be asking Rachel on Tuesday how many soft bounces we get from your OOOs - and I hope to see more than in July!!

Cheers to your R&R in August,

Hilary