Whether you’re jet-setting across oceans or just heading to the family lake house for the weekend, home business owners should take advantage of the summer season to disconnect from work and enjoy a well-earned vacation. Sure, signing-off sounds great, but in today’s always connected business world, it has become harder, especially for home business owners, to completely shut off and separate the office from the home. Oftentimes, the source of the distractions that bring us back into the office is email, a vital resource for business communication that can make it difficult to step away when trying to get some rest and relaxation.
Disconnecting from work to enjoy a vacation is good for your well-being, but 66% of full-time employees in the U.S. don’t believe they have the proper work/life balance. Finding a true work/life balance can be even harder for business owners that operate out of their home. Often times, these types of businesses only have a couple employees, and because each employee is so important to overall business success, they feel the need to answer every email as soon as it hits their inbox. On average, email users receive 147 emails per day, and just because you’re on vacation, doesn’t mean they stop. The constant notifications can quickly take us away from the time we should otherwise be spending with our friends and families.
Research shows that checking emails less frequently reduces stress, so if you do feel the need to stay connected while on vacation, limit it to three times per day. A strategy to follow is checking once when you get up in the morning, again before or after lunch, and then finally, once more before the end of the workday. By only checking emails a few times per day, you’re sure to address anything that may come up in the office while still spending most of your time away from your screen and with your family.
Even if you’re not taking an entire vacation, home business owners can use the following tips to unplug this summer. So, no matter if you’re going away, or just enjoying a nice dinner with family, consider the following when disconnecting from email:
- Optimize your inbox: Employees spend an average of eight hours per week answering work-related emails after leaving the office according to a 2016 study. Many also admit to working on vacation or bringing work materials on social outings, which is why those who struggle to disconnect should consider adding a 3rd party extension. Additional ways to optimize your inbox include creating a filter so you’re only delivered emails from certain people or setting up your inbox to deliver new emails only at set times that you decide. There are myriads of email productivity tools available – find the ones that make your inbox work for you.
- Shelve non-timely emails for a later date: According to research from Carnegie Mellon University, more than a third of emails don’t need your attention immediately, but will need to be addressed at a later date. Strategies like utilizing an email reminder service, archiving non-urgent messages, or stashing them in temporary folders give home business owners the opportunity to efficiently address their inbox without sacrificing down time. Email from your digital marketer about a fall webinar? Stash it away and set a reminder to get back to it at a more appropriate time.
- Respond in batches: If you do feel the need to answer emails while away, pick a few preset times as discussed above, and make addressing your inbox your immediate focus. Commit to acting on each email, and in about 20 minutes, you should be able to clear about 51 emails from your inbox. If it’s something that can be taken care of in three minutes, address it before moving on to the email that follows. Your focus should always be the next email in your inbox. You want to make sure each message gets your full attention for a brief amount of time so that you can make a quick decision on what to do with it before moving on – and getting back to your hammock and summer reading!
Home business owners should be spending their summer enjoying the weather with friends and family members, so avoid sitting in front of computer screens or being glued to mobile phones with the tips above. Disconnecting can certainly be a challenge to home business owners because they need to be responsive to customers and clients, but careful planning will have a greater overall benefit to the actual business as well as the home business owner’s peace-of-mind. Disconnecting from emails allows home business owners to recharge so that when they are back at work, they’re full of renewed energy and ready to go!
