Episode 45: Five tips to avoid checking your email on holiday

00:00 Before we get going, I have an invitation for you. If you're ready to find out how much easier it becomes to get things done when you have Make It Happen Club in your life? The doors are open to new members right now and i would love for you to join us! So Make It Happen club is a calm quiet sanctuary where you get the clarity focus and motivation you need Hello and welcome to Unfrazzle with me Louise Miller. If you're a solo business owner and you have a big exciting vision and loads of ideas that you want to get out in the world but without drowning in a sea of overwhelm, then this is the podcast for you. Each week I'll be sharing bite-sized insights to help you stop faffing and stay focused so you can make your brilliant ideas happen and make a bigger impact in the world It's time to step away from the hustle and find a kinder more sustainable approach to productivity So grab yourself a cuppa and let's get started

01:32 I know that some people like to keep on top of their email whilst they're on holiday, but to me that kind of defeats the object of taking a break as it means you're not giving yourself the opportunity to completely switch off and forget about work for awhile. So running your business is really hard right? And it can be all-encompassing taking up so much of our headspace, so much of the time And I don't know about you, but i always feel so much more energized and motivated when I allow myself some time away where I actually completely step away from my business. And it does me good to remember that the reason I chose this path of self-employment in the first place with all of its twists and turns and ups and downs was so that I can enjoy my life outside of work not be constantly thinking about work and worried about what's going on and checking my emails constantly

02:19 So of course if you really want to check your email whilst you're on holiday there's absolutely nothing I can do to stop you but what i would say is see if you can be intentional about that so that it doesn't take over and stop you from having a really fun relaxing break where you're able to be present with what's happening around you rather than always having one eye on your phone. So now I've got that out of the way, let's talk about what to do if you do want to switch off. A while ago i was tagged into a post that someone shared and she was saying she was going on holiday and she really wanted to switch off and relax but she wasn't sure that she'd be able to go the whole week without checking her email so she was asking for tips and she tagged me into the post in the hope that I could help and as it happened

03:03 I could! So, i put together some thoughts and turned them into a blog post. And as we're getting into holiday season right now, I thought this would be a really good time to share them with you here on the podcast so here we go my five tips to avoid the urge to check your emails when you're on holiday. Tip number one and this is the most obvious it may well have you rolling your eyes that is to remove your mail app from your phone So for me, tapping on the apps on my phone is a bit like muscle memory. The twitch is too strong and sometimes I don't even realise that I'm doing it so removing the app from my phone particularly the email app from my phone gives me back control and removes that temptation completely As a quick aside, I have managed to run my business without having my email on my phone for years now because usually if I am in work mode then I've got my laptop with me

03:58 I know that i really struggle, I have such terrible willpower. For me, I would much rather not have the app on my phone at all so what I do is rather than removing the app when I don't need it... ...I just add it to my phone and install it on very rare occasions when I DO want to be able access email on my phone and then once I'm back to normal, back home working with my laptop again I'll take the app off of my phone So just something for you think about there And yeah, my second tip. If you're taking a break at home or if your laptop is going with you on holiday log out of your email provider on your computer so this is just about creating an extra barrier to checking your email because again it might be that you start doing it on autopilot and if you get a screen that's asking you for your password that might just give you the second that you need to go actually I don't need to be doing this right now...and to walk away! The idea is

04:56 Putting barriers in place to make it as difficult as possible for you to get into your inbox. And then the third thing you can do is before you go away, look at your calendar and set aside a decent chunk of time to deal with your inbox when you get back and that way you can't use that old I just need to keep on top of it so it's not a mess when I get back excuse that I know we've all told ourselves at one time or another. So this is about giving yourself time To have a good tidy up when you get back from your break and knowing that is ready for you in your calendar. And that can also be actually, a really nice gentle way of easing yourself back into work mode as well when you're back off your holiday. And then again this is an obvious one I know but number four is all about turning on and out of office so before you go away turn on or out of office telling people this is the key bit telling people you won't be checking emails at all whilst you are off

05:57 I know depending on what i'm doing sometimes if i'm just away at a work thing for example, I will say in my out of office that I have limited access but if i'm on holiday and I know I don't want to be checking my email. I will say that I will have no access and the reason I think that can be so helpful and powerful Well, there's two reasons. First of all if you're saying in your out-of-office that you're not going to be checking your emails at all if you do end up checking your emails and replying to someone when you're supposed to be on holiday they're gonna know that you were telling fibs about not accessing your emails and the second thing is that making an announcement in that way can be really great for accountability so if you view your out-of-office message as kind of a piece of accountability around a boundary that you're really committing to stick to

06:47 That can be just another thing that will help you. Because if you're not going to reply to anything, why go in your inbox at all? Tip number five So if checking your email feels like a habit to you what could you do instead? How could you crowd that habit out by making a different choice? Just one quick example of that If you usually check your email whilst having your morning coffee maybe You might want to read a book instead or listen to a podcast Or take your coffee out for a walk So I know some of that seems blindingly obvious but by taking practical steps to prevent you from checking your inbox, you are way more likely to follow through than if you rely on willpower alone. You know it's not just about going oh i'm not going to check my email

07:33 It's about how are you going to prevent yourself from checking your email? What are you actually going to do, how are you going to make that as strong a conviction as you possibly can and I hope that some of what i've shared today will help you with that. So if you are taking a break this summer I hope you're able to relax switch off and have a great time knowing that unplugging from your business even for just a little while is a really great thing to do both for your business and for you so I hope that this helps and I look forward to seeing you again soon Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle. Sharing is caring, so if you loved this episode please share it on your socials or head over to Spotify iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and leave me a review not only will I be hugely grateful Your ratings and reviews will help others to find this podcast So that even more people can make their ideas happen Thanks so much and see you next time