I stopped taking "time-off"

Crazy I know. I’m writing this in Italy, where we trek, meet with friends, and enjoy ‘all-you-can-eat’ sushi (it’s really a thing here).

Instead of treating my time like PTO, I spend my days thinking about the business and improving my products. Just not obsessively.

I don’t really believe in ‘work-life balance’ for entrepreneurs...

This magical balance between your business and your life where you come home and just forget about your work, doesn’t exist.

Here’s what I do instead: Every 3 months, I try to do a ‘business-pleasure’ trip. I try to go to places I’ve never been, enjoy the time, and think of my business in ways I’m not doing normally.

Life and work get mixed. But there’s an upside :)

I do stuff I don’t get a chance to do normally:

• I hike in the Alps when in Italy.
• I rented a campervan and traveled the west of Ireland.
• I got a villa with a pool in Thailand and spent my days there.

I get to think about concepts and ideas I’d never think about if I was stuck with the everyday monotony of work. The last time I did this, I planned the onboarding process for a new team member, the next MVP I’d run, and the game plan for the Thank You app.

In those weeks, I get to shape my vision for the next quarter.

I’m able to look at things from 30,000 feet, which would be more difficult while working day-to-day. The moment I step into the airport, my brain opens up with so many different ideas I didn’t have the capacity to process or think of while working.

Intrigued? How to do it is relatively simple:

• Find a place you want to go.
• Find a meeting or a conference to attend there, and get it on the calendar.
• Plan your trip around the business meeting and you could pretty much expense everything to the business, no questions asked.

Enjoy! :)