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Post Vacation - Return to Reality (Work!)

Guest post by: Debbie Lessin

Article Overview: Life is truely a balancing act when it comes to work and play! We work hard to play hard. And vacation is often the tangible reward for our hard work. Not everyone can leave work at work when on vacation. But Debbie Lessin, CPA and self proclaimed Balance Lady, can and does. Debbie shares her reentry into work mode upon return from her 10 day vacation. Her calm, positive attitude helped her seamlessly ease back into work with no stress, no negating what the vacation was all about. She shares her journey and reminds us all that we not only need to take time away from work to refresh mind, body and spirit but to do so by trying to truly leave work at work!

Post Vacation - Return to Reality (Work!)

Vacation...a respite for rest and relaxation, a journey of places to go, people to see, thinks to do...time away from work!

Alas, my ten day vacation, the Girls Head West Road trip from Chicago to San Francisco (2 friends + 2 dogs = 2500+ miles) came to an end on Saturday July 31^st when I landed at O'Hare airport around 11:00 PM. Sunday was a day for me, time to settle in, unpack, and replenish the refrigerator with healthy food (too many days of snacking in the car) by walking to the neighborhood farmer's market and the grocery store. Walking to move my body after too much sitting in the car! And then, came Monday morning and my return to reality - work!

That change from vacation mode to work mode is truly a change in mindset for me. I really did walk away from all my CPA work responsibilities while I was gone. I didn't call in for voicemail messages. I didn't check my CPA work email. And while I did check two other email addresses while I was gone, it was because I chose to bring my laptop on the trip to write and blog, write and blog as a creative exercise at the end of our long, fun day of travel. I wanted to write about what the sights we saw, our observations on the road, the dogs, and friends and family which was really what the trip was all about. Bringing the computer with was an ends to a mean, the blogging was all about me.

Would I have checked the one email address where I get my daily tax update emails (which I did NOT open!) and the coupons/offers/mailing list specials/financial correspondence without the laptop? Probably not, even though I could have accessed it on my IPhone if I had wanted to, assuming there was service and often there was not! Had I not reviewed that email account, I suspect I would have come home to about an abundance emails waiting for me, most of which probably could have and would have been deleted without opening. So while I was probably online more than I might otherwise have been on vacation (early morning/late at night) it was merely about accessibility. By deleting so many of the "garbage" emails before I got home I was happy not to have 500+ emails to conquer on Sunday or Monday.

Monday morning I did not jump right out of bed, ready to rush to work. My body was still partially adjusting to the time change, to the end of vacation mode. Beside, I needed to pick up a package for work that I was delivered to my UPS Store mailbox while I was gone. And they didn't open until 9:00 AM. Many times they just put the packages/copy order in the storage cabinet up front where I can access it after hours with the key left in my box. When I stopped there on Sunday, there was no package in the cabinet. But I hadn't called ahead to tell them to transfer it there either. So, I knew I could ease into the day somewhat. I'm usually already at work by 9:00 AM, or at least en route, walking unless it is raining or I need the car directly after work. Already this was not my usual work morning routine. It nicely still felt like vacation mode.

On Monday's I tend to work until 6:00 PM or later. I try to get a good solid day in at the office after being gone for the weekend. While I out of town for 10 days, technically it was only 7 business days. Yet, for me the workable business days were really only 3. My summer, non-tax season schedules allows me Thursday and Fridays off from April 15^th - December 15^th. Four of the days I was gone spanning the two work weeks were Thursday and Fridays, days I wouldn't have planned to be in (or check in) anyway. When I left the office for vacation I was as caught up as I could have been. Mentally, I left in a good place. And I was going to return in that same good place, unafraid of what awaited me upon my return to the office.

On this particular Monday I even knew that I was leaving an hour early, to head to Wrigley Field for a 7:05 PM Cubs game. It was August 1^st, the beginning of a new month. July month end billing awaited me too. My part-time tax season administrative assistant was coming to work for the first time in 4 weeks. It's really quiet in the summer so I can usually manage on my own by choice. I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to be an overly productive day any way I looked at it. So my attitude going in was answer the emails, return any phone calls, open the mail, do the July billing (minimal this month that it was), and ease back into work slowly.

Rather than waste time reading the daily tax updates at the office (something I often do in between client billable hours) I started my work day at 7:30 AM at home, killing some time before the UPS store opened. There were 22 tax update emails awaiting me (the ones I saw but had no problem ignoring!), emails filled with technical language that would put a normal person to sleep, even a CPA. And here I was on Monday morning post vacation trying to wake up! I slowly read through the tidbit I found relevant to my practice. I didn't print anything or cut/paste/email myself anything to follow up on. It seemed like I didn't miss very much. I was so proud of myself for having knocked this off my list before I even left the house. My day was off to a good start!

I walked to the office, a glorious summer day, decked out in my Cubs attire, ready for the evening. First stop once I buzz myself into the building - the mail box downstairs. Only two regular bills awaited me there - American Express and People Gas. Three return envelopes with money for me to deposit, a healthy deposit at that, a good start to the month. Most of the mail was junk mail, easily disposed of without reading. I stepped into the office, turned off the alarm, turned the AC down to start cooling the place off and checked voice mail next.

A whopping total of six messages were waiting for me, three of which were wrong numbers. Ten months after moving to the office, a new phone number after 23 years, I still wonder who the people are that had these numbers before me. The "not for me" calls sometimes seem to outnumber my real client calls. I'm not totally surprised by the phone calls it's was fairly quiet all July, no one really thinking too much about taxes, unless they have ROTH conversion on their mind. The clients whose returns are on extension mostly are procrastinators and unless I'm on their case, they are not proactive in initiating the contact at this point in the extension season. Besides, I've trained most of my clients to email first, phone second! Only one of the 2 client calls even required a return call. The other one followed up with an email and my reply to that was far more efficient. No phone tag after vacation for me! Gone 10 days and only 6 phone calls! Now that made me happy!

Next task - my CPA email account. Amazingly there are only 31 emails (separating the email accounts really works for me), two of which are more personal in nature, 2 are essentially spam not directly filtered to spam folder (where another 2 resided), 4 are responses to my automatic "away" message. The rest are business questions which I could and did easily respond to. No accounting emergency occurring while I was gone, not that I expected any.

By noon, I've opened the mail, returned the phone calls, answered the emails, got a head start on month end stats and billing and even started doing actual billable client work. By 5:00 PM, I've billed just under 4 hours. I'm more than satisfied as my normal billing day post tax-season is between 5-6 hours. By days' end, I'm ready to relax with my friend over dinner before the baseball game. I've eased back into work with absolutely no stress whatsoever. My vacation does not seem negated in any way!

I took vacation on a week where no one missed me. I did not miss anything or anyone, from work that is! The world did not fall apart because I did not check email or voice mail while I was gone. Whether it was good planning, a stroke of good luck or a combination thereof, it was such a favorable work/life balance experience that it will positively imbed itself in my mind.

You know when you can leave the office. You do. Not everything is truly a crisis. If it is, you need to step back and redefine your definition of crisis. Because really, isn't some of what you fret over small stuff? You can walk away from work and not check voice mail or email - maybe not for ten days but start with a long weekend. Take that first step, baby steps at that. Go with peace of mind. But most importantly, remember to ease back into work after your return. It's really a matter of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it won't matter! Think positive. Do not let your days of rest and relaxation become fleeting memories, erased within minutes of work upon your return. Because if you do, you better start planning that next vacation the minute you get back to work! Life is truly a balancing act of work and play. Just remember that even when you are playing it's not always about work! Make it about you!

Vacation is about refreshing your mind, body and spirit! When you do, you are able to function better at work. Really you are! Being an entrepreneur is hard enough on a day to day basis. One of the benefits should be the ability to manage your schedule, your life. Yes, this comes with age and experience, with the comfort and security that long time entrepreneurial survival brings. Business changes from year to year as does how you do business. So it's no surprise that how you are able to walk away from it all will change over the years too. Even in the start-up years, when time is money (that doesn't change!) and money doesn't seem to exist, take a few days at home, a "staycation" if need be. Refreshing your mind, body and spirit doesn't have to mean leaving town or spending money. It's about rest and relaxation. Be creative. Go with the flow. Learn from experience. Yes, these are all clichés. But they really do ring true. Happy Vacation! And happy return to reality (work!) too!

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Article Tags: balancing act, cpa, mind body and spirit, positive attitude, return to reality, vacation



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