shit-happens 3946399 Research about sat.

I took a long weekend over the summer, and went cycling along the route of Hadrian’s wall with a friend. No email. No laptop. No work. It was great! It was also probably the first real break I’ve had in over three years, as the laptop’s come everywhere else with me.

And this is generally how I get my downtime – short breaks, or from Jan – Sept, daily triathlon training. It isn’t exactly relaxing, but the physical exercise lets my mind run free and uncoil quite nicely.

Karl.

I try and push all the work to after 8pm when the kids are in bed so that they see Dad all day and then I’m free to focus 100% on work for 3-4 hours once they are tucked in and asleep.

As all my staff telecommute they can pretty much do the same, as long as the work gets done, we can be where ever we like in the world for as long as we like…. as long as the location has Internet !!

True, there’s always work to do, and it can always be done, but a key for me is the mini-break, whether that be simply a coffee refill or a long weekend (a favorite of this thread).

Another benefit of working at/from home: taking off early, running errands, attending a child’s ballgame. I probably only work 40-45 hours a week, but they’re leisurely hours, not forced 8-5, M-F (gosh those are horrible hours).

One technique I learned back when I was a beat reporter working 60-70 hour weeks, including weekends, was to shut off work whenever I wasn’t working. It’s not exactly easy to do but at leas you focus on the time off that you have rather than worry about what will happen when you are back at work.

For a while our place on the NC coast had no cell service so I was able to escape, this year they put up a new tower that even supports EDGE. Very much a mixed blessing.

I think the real issue is are you established enough to tell the world to wait for two weeks. In my mind, most independent web workers would need a year or two to really build a client base and lead pipeline that can withstand two weeks of downtime. That’s what keeps me out of the Caribbean.

Its really worth it to be able to take 2 weeks off and come back refreshed with new perspectives and enough energy and internet withdrawal to make work fun (till the next vacation)

The catch is that the expectation needs to be set to my customers (or coworkers, or whoever depends on me) that I won’t be available. If that’s not acceptable to them, then 1) it’s time for me to find new work or 2) I picked the wrong people to work with.

-> IM Paranoia : Was afraid to leave my desk in case a manager pinged me on our corporate IM network. I didnt want them to think I was goofing off.

-> Social deficit: No longer was I in the same environment as my colleagues and superiors. Talking on the phone and webconferencing only goes so far. You definitely miss out on the face-to-face interaction with other people. I fixed this by working at various places on some days.

-> Feedback is a Challenge: In a corporate environment its hard to get a feeback guage on what you are doing. I think people inherently feel that since you are offsite, you are not available.

-> Work-Life Balance is a challenge: I work WAYYY more hours now.

There are TONS of benefits though – which I would not trade for anything ;) I love working from home but its not for everybody.

Ryan

So do you get time off to relax or perhaps even take a holiday? As Web Worker Daily points out, even taking a day off can be a difficult thing where you are the only one manning the office: In