How to Take a ~Real~ Vacation As a Virtual Assistant
I am writing to you in Colorado on vacation with my family right now! And I had some time to think about a question that I get a lot, which is, how do you take time off or go on vacation as a virtual assistant? And I think this stems from a myth that you have to be available all the time for your clients, which is just simply not true at all. So I decided to break down exactly what that looks like when I go on vacation or take trips with my family.
First and foremost, the idea that you have to take your laptop with you on vacation or be available to clients is, as I said, just false. It's totally misinformation. For me, it depends on the trip or the vacation. Like if I will work a little bit or not. So an example of this is that when we went to California back in May, we were gone for five days and I was completely out of the office, with no laptop, no emails and no Voxer communication!
Typically I take like one to two of these kinds of breaks with my family every year. One looks like a vacation, like California, and the other is right around the holidays. I usually take a week off, like the Thanksgiving week, and then a week of Christmas and New Year's, like that week of that holiday. So sometimes it looks like vacation, and other times it looks like just being out of the office to spend time with family.
I also don’t work weekends therefore, I don't feel that I have to take that many unplugged vacations because I get a really good reset and I feel really balanced with work-life and home life regularly. But I do like having just those totally out of the office, not looking at my phone, computer, or anything like those moments throughout the year.
That being said, for this Colorado trip, I did bring my computer. and I plan to get some work in. We are here for 10 days, so it's a longer period of time. It's also my hometown, we're staying with my parents, so it's more chill and like everyone kind of moving about normal life so I planned out when exactly I would be working and when I wouldn't be! I’m working significantly less than what I would be doing if we were at home (think three to five hours over the next 10 days versus my typical 20ish hours per week.)
There are five things that I do to prep for vacations or times that I will be out of the office!
Batching and Scheduling
Think content, scheduling emails, and getting tasks done ahead of time!
Batching is huge. It helps me feel like I am getting ahead and I typically I do this if I'm gonna be gone for a week or two. I try to actually get done as much as I can for those two weeks so that when I come home from vacation, I'm not feeling rushed or stressed to get that work done as soon as I get home, you know?
Communication
Communicating with my clients about what my out-of-office situation will look like helps everyone. I do still have a handful of clients that I work with as their operations manager. So I chat with them and let them know I'm going to be gone and what they can expect in terms of work or response time with emails or Voxer. The biggest thing for me here is that while they are my clients, they are not my employer. And this is the case for anyone that works with clients. So it's less really about asking for permission and more about us together as a team coming up with a solution for when and how tasks will get done.
For example, if things can be batched upfront, I just get those done. But if it's something like email for inbox management, we come up with a solution together and it usually looks like me being out of the inbox for a few days and putting up a vacation message for any incoming emails if I'm planning on being totally out of the office. If it is something that I'm thinking, I can just answer emails during nap time, it's not a big deal, I can spend 10-30 minutes going through an email inbox while my kids nap or after they go to bed, then that's also totally fine.
So while it's not like asking your clients for permission, I also always make sure anything that needs to be done, that they're never waiting on things from me. If it needed to get done while I was gone or before I left, that's done and out of the way. Again, this is a planned vacation and planned time off. There are obviously situations where it's an emergency and it's not planned. And again, that's just like communicating with your clients. It's sometimes not realistic to get things done before obviously an emergency happens or your kids are sick or whatever. And again, this is where client communication is just so huge.
Finding a Solution
If there are things that cannot be batched, like I mentioned before emails, I like to take two options to my clients. I can either do this or we can do this. Maybe there is something specific that they prefer or even a third option you can bring to the table!
Schedule the Days Ahead
if I am going to work while I'm gone, I schedule exactly when I will be working and what I will be doing during that time. For example, I knew that we were going to be driving Monday and Tuesday of the week we got here. So I wouldn't be working then and then I took the 4th and the 5th off of work.
On the 3rd, I took a couple of hours during nap time to get some things done. I had a call that I needed to get on with a client for this next quarter that would take 30 or 40 minutes. And I had some things that I wanted to get done that I didn't get done before our trip.
I think it's so important to not just plan when you're going to work, but what you're going to be doing during that time so I'm not spending any of my work time doing things that can be put off. It is strictly tasks that need to get done on a deadline like emails that need to be answered or content that needs to be scheduled.
Communicate Your Work Plans with Family
If I am taking a family vacation, I want to make sure we are all on the same page, especially when it comes to the kids and everyone's activities and schedules. My husband knows, my parents know, anybody else that we would be with knows that you know, on this day I am going to have to plug into work, and on that day I'm not going to work. Or maybe it's like, I'm going to plan to plug in during nap time. And that way everyone's just on the same page because I think that is important as well. Or if I'm not bringing my computer, I just let them know that I won't be working on the trip and it's as easy as that.
Here's the deal. We can take way more trips and time off than if I were still teaching or working a nine-to-five. So there are obviously trips that I don't work at all, but there are also some that I choose to get a little done when we're gone because to me that's a very small price to pay for how much flexibility we have like in our day to day life. As well as being able to take this time off and go on these trips. I will happily work for a little bit during my kid’s nap time, after they go to bed or while they're on an adventure with their Gigi when we are on vacation because this business is exactly why I'm able to spend so much time with them at home regularly. And it's also the reason why we are even able to be here in the first place.
I shared this on social media and someone messaged me and said something like, “Thank you for sharing these tips because it shows that business doesn't have to look one way.” And I 100 % agree. The whole point of being an entrepreneur is that you have the freedom to run your work exactly how you want to run it. What feels good to one person may not align with another, and that's the whole point.
What feels good to one person may not align with another. And that's the whole point. And I hope that this episode shows you that like, that's the whole point of having your own business is running things the way that you want to run it and how it feels good to you in the moment, in the season, depending on the trip, depending on the vacation, all that good stuff!
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