Summer provides a natural experiment as hordes of highly connected workers stream out of home offices and coffee shops to take their annual, stress-reducing, fair-weather holiday. But if you were hoping the attractions of sun and sea could keep web workers from their laptops, a recent survey from flexible office space company Regus will make for depressing reading.

Those of you who thought the staycation was a gloomy concept, brace yourselves for the “workation.” Regus is employing the term after polling 5,000 U.S. professionals and determining that, whatever the charms of their vacation destinations, most will be unable to fully get away from work this summer.  The company found:

• 50 percent of Americans admit they will work during their vacation this summer
• 75 percent plan to stay connected to the office in some way while on vacation
• 66 percent will be checking and responding to email during their time off
• 29 percent may have to attend meetings virtually while on vacation

While Regus is using the findings to flog its centers as a better alternative to unreliable hotel Internet connections, the larger question begging to be asked is whether the transformation of the vacation into the workation is healthy, and what consequences, if any, our poolside emailing will have on our productivity (or more fundamentally mental health) down the road?

On the other hand, with research showing that around 66 percent of Americans leave some vacation days on the table, maybe a quick Skype in to your client after a morning or snorkeling beats never leaving home at all for fear of falling behind. Whatever your take on workations, WebWorkerDaily has tips on how to manage your time off and minimize holiday-related stress.

What’s your take on the workation phenomenon — better than not going at all or a sad comment on the workaholism epidemic among web workers?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Giorgio Montersino

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A total of 71 percent of those responding to the survey said that they are OK with being interrupted while on their summer vacations. That percentage included:

• 32 percent who said that email is the best way to reach them,
• 20 percent preferred to be contacted by phone, and
• 18 percent preferred text messages.

Interestingly, of the 29 percent who said it is never appropriate to contact them while on vacation, more than 7 out of 10 are over the age of 45.

Eighty-seven percent of those responding to the survey also preferred email for communicating with coworkers and business contacts while in the office. Of those responding, 31 percent said that voicemail is their least favorite mode of communication, followed by instant messaging (29 percent), and texting (26 percent).

The survey was conducted online from May 12-16, 2011 among 2,398 U.S. adults. Respondents were full- and part-time employed adults in the U.S. who have colleagues.

How accessible will you be on your next vacation?

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How can you switch off without appearing to slack off? How do you set boundaries without annoying colleagues (or your kids)? And most importantly how do you overcome your own impulse to check your email just one more time? These questions can be tricky, as blog Personal Dividends recently reported when outlining the downsides of web work:

I can shift some of my assignments around, but I rarely go a day without doing something related to my business. The only exceptions are Sundays and my yearly three-day camping trip. Usually, even when I’m away from home, I’m on the laptop for at least two hours day. Sometimes that means getting up way before everyone else so that I can get my stuff done before the activities of the day.

If you’ve been working remotely for a while you’re probably already aware of the trouble with vacations, so how can you minimize the guilt and stress and maximize the relaxation of your holiday? Here is a roundup of the best tips from around the Internet:

• The obvious: inform clients or co-workers, choose your dates wisely, work ahead and prepare set email responses you can use with minimal effort while away.
• Save the money and time necessary. You save up for a new car and block out enough time for a big job. Isn’t a vacation also worth dedicating resources to? Treat your break like a client and add your holiday to your calendar. Save money and sequester it for the purpose of taking a vacation.
• Keep “remote guilt” in perspective. It’s well-documented that remote workers are often paranoid that they are perceived as lazy and work more hours to compensate. Vacations can be extra stressful because of this worry. There’s no magic cure, but knowing that you’re not at all alone in feeling that guilt can help.
• Imagine your family’s perspective. If you need help finding the right balance between work and play, it might help imagining what you look like to your kids tapping away on your laptop in your Bermuda shorts. You tell yourself about the economic complexities and that you prefer interesting work to a bad detective novel, but can you really justify your decisions to your loved ones? If you’re not sure, maybe you need to re-balance.
• Have a plan to deal with backlog on your return. No matter how well you’ve planned in advance, you will face a mountain of emails and to-do list items when you come home. Mentally brace for it and come up with a strategy to dig out. There are plenty of resources to help.
• Don’t force yourself. Burn-out is a terrible thing, says conventional wisdom, which argues that no vacations equals physical and creative exhaustion. That’s true for many, but for some people blurring the line between life and work is the whole point of the web worker lifestyle. As Gerald M. Weinberg puts it, “By my definition, a vacation is an escape from work you don’t want to do. According to my definition, I’ve been on a real vacation for a long, long time.” If you’re like Weinberg, why waste valuable mental energy fretting about how much time you take off?

Do you struggle take and enjoy vacations as a web worker?

Image courtesy Flickr user uros velickovic.

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The experience on a long-distance train is very different than that of “corridor” trains like the Acelas in the northeast and the Cascades Talgo trains in the northwest. I enjoyed watching the countryside go by and chatting with my fellow passengers. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t do any of the writing I had planned, or even crack open a book.

The technical planning I wrote about in my earlier post went as I had expected. I was able to check my email and keep up with Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds on my iPod touch connected to a Sprint Overdrive hotspot. Amtrak does offer Wi-Fi on the Acela trains, and the service has been so popular that it will be expanded to other areas soon.

Connectivity was limited in some of the Great Plains, but I was a bit surprised at the poor connections in parts of New England. A colleague had a similar problem at a major resort in Florida using another carrier, so I can’t blame either Sprint or the specific equipment I was using.

Nevertheless, I was able to download what I needed while the train was stopped in places like Whitefish, Montana, after which I could read and respond to messages offline.

My colleagues have written a lot about how to take vacations, so I’ll just add a couple of suggestions of my own:

• Don’t plan to work any more than you absolutely have to.
• Decide how connected you really want or need to be while you’re away.
• Give yourself some planning time before the vacation, and decompression time afterward.
• Tell your clients in advance that you’ll be away. Most will be understanding.

Have a great summer, and bon voyage!

How will you take time off this year?
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As enjoyable as the holiday season can be, it’s also a hectic time filled with demands that can exceed even your busiest days at work. On top of that, it can be hard to let go of work, and there’s often a little nagging voice reminding you of what will be waiting for you on your return. When the first weeks of the new year arrive, it’s easy to feel jet lagged and sleep deprived, wishing that you had time for a vacation from the vacation!

It’s a lot easier to realize the need for downtime and rest during times like these, but it’s just as important to routinely get time away from work and daily stresses well after putting away the Christmas ornaments.

A creative outlet or some form of physical activity can be just the remedy for stress-filled days, so why not take the time to plan for some fun activities away from the office?

Get a Hobby

There are so many ways to blow off steam. It can be as simple as a daily walk, but you might also enjoy:

• Joining an acting, photography or painting class at a local college.
• Baking or cooking something special each day.
• Gardening or visiting nature centers in your area.
• Dancing or taking a dance class.
• Exercising or bike-riding.
• Swimming, rowing or simply being near water.
• Reading or starting/joining a book club.
• Hiking, jogging or preparing for a marathon.
• Sewing, crocheting, pottery-making or painting.
• Spending time outdoors or with your pets.

The options are truly endless, but the important thing is making sure to reserve time for it every single day, so be sure to find something that’s accessible and convenient so that you’ll actually commit to it and make it part of your routine.

Schedule It In

The New Year is here, and it’s the perfect time to set your intentions and make room for those things that are most important to you, and taking time for yourself to unwind and take your mind off work should be at the top of your list. If you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re not operating at your best, which can actually take away from the attention you provide your life and business.

Reserve time now for yourself and activities that will rejuvenate you and help you bring the highest level of energy and clarity to your business.

How do you unwind and decompress from the stresses that can come with running a business?

Image from Flickr by lepiaf.geo

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The notion may seem anti-social, but in fact I think it has more to do with an evolutionary principle. If I seek out things that I need or run errands when there are less people about, there will be less competition for available resources, and I won’t be nearly as stressed out as I might otherwise be. Obviously, because of work schedules not everyone has the ability to do this, but it’s one of the major advantages of working from home.

While the Cat’s Away, the Mouse Will Work

The holidays are not a great time for doing much of anything. The malls are packed, transit is unbearable, and even the gym gets prohibitively busy for about three or four weeks following Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations. When there’s downtime for most, I spend the least amount of time on personal an leisure activities. Instead, I turn to work.

Work is the one refuge for the beleaguered loner during the holidays, for the very simple reason that almost no one else is doing any. This is especially beneficial if your job in any way involves competing with colleagues for publication space, as it does in my case, but it can also be useful in many other ways to any number different types of remote workers.

Less Distraction

During the holidays, and especially the Christmas season, I’ve noticed a significant decrease in the amount of Internet chatter going on. Twitter is a much less active place, as is Facebook, at least in my personal experience.

Even the news cycle seems to lull around Christmas, or maybe I just hear about it less because of the dip in social media activity. TV is totally bereft of any new content, and becomes a veritable wasteland of holiday special repeats and marathons of shows that last for 16 hours and can be pretty tedious, even if you’re a fan to begin with.

Your inbox fills up at a fraction of the pace you’re used to during ordinary working days, too. There was a day just recently when I received only five emails, total, for example. I can’t remember the last time that happened, but I guarantee it was long before I started making my money working online.

Less Competition

I know I already mentioned that there is less competition over the holiday period which can be good news for writers like me, but it also applies to other fields in less obvious ways. For example, holiday cover work is a great opportunity to make some extra money during a time when many people are on vacation. You’re especially well-placed to take advantage of this opportunity if you don’t yet have a family, or are semi-retired and don’t mind the time it takes away from your holiday.

In order to get some extra work over the holidays, make your employer and coworkers aware of your desire to help out long before the Christmas season actually hits. If you have to, make sure you put in some time beforehand training up and asking about how to go about doing the jobs you might be asked to cover when the time comes. If your organization is aware you know how to do the job, it’ll make their decision to use you when needed a lot easier.

A Gift for Yourself

While it can be hard to summon the motivation to go to work when everyone else around you is in the process of unwinding completely and enjoying the season, it an also be very rewarding. Just because the world slows down when the year winds down, doesn’t mean it stops completely. There’s still plenty of gears that need turning, and best of all, you’ll be in a much better position to pick and choose from a relative wealth of work.

Don’t get me wrong, I still crave a break. And a break I shall have, but it’ll be a time-shifted one, designed to take place at a time when everyone else has gone back to work.

Did you work over the holidays?

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Inbox Zero

I usually manage to get my inbox under control right before I take a week off during the holidays, but by the time I return to work, it has usually filled right back up with new email. This time, I’m making a real effort to keep it at inbox zero for more than a few hours. I went to inbox zero about a week ago, and I’ve managed to keep it at zero all week by spending a little time each day responding to what I can and moving everything else into areas for response or further reading while creating tasks for to-do items. By keeping up with this process during the holidays while the volume is more manageable, I hope that I’m building up habits that will help me continue to manage my email in 2010. Even if you don’t aspire to implement inbox zero over the long-term, there is something very refreshing about starting the new year with a clean inbox.

Paperwork, Planning and Finances

This is also a great time to get all your paperwork, planning and finances in order. I plan to tackle that pile of paperwork accumulating on my desk that really should be filed, and it’s a great time to get everything ready for your taxes. You should also take some time to set your goals for 2010 and come up with a plan that will help you achieve them.

Relax

Nothing helps me get a fresh start like taking a few days off to relax and recharge. It’s hard to get a great start on the year if you are overworked and exhausted. I took most of last week off to visit family, but the holidays come with their own stresses. I plan to work like mad on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get the rest of my work done along with some paperwork and other business; however, I’m going to take a nice, long four-day weekend off at home to relax, read and hit the gym to start the new year feeling great.

What are your favorite tips for getting the new year off to a great start?

Photo by Flickr User Daniel Voyager used under Creative Commons.

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Most of us also try to take a few days off around the holidays, which can create additional time and budget constraints. For freelancers, no one actually pays you for those days off, and you still need to meet client expectations. Telecommuters and other workers still have about the same amount of work to complete with fewer days to accomplish it. Regardless of your work situation, this still means more stress during the holidays. I have a few suggestions to help you manage your stress and come out of the holidays at least as healthy and happy as you were before the holiday season.

Get Ahead

When I get stressed, my natural instinct is to procrastinate, but that will only make the situation worse. I force myself to do what I can to get ahead on any tasks that can be accomplished early to avoid a mad rush during the holidays.

For one client, I knew that holiday schedules would derail the normal approval process for my weekly writing tasks, so instead of doing a week’s worth of writing, I did a week and a half. This gets me through the first half of the week after the Thanksgiving holiday, and I can pick back up on the writing after everyone gets back from vacation.

I also finished about 90 percent of my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. My family lives in Ohio, so I took advantage of online shopping to buy almost everything and have it shipped directly to my Mom’s house. This saves me the hassles of last-minute shopping and store crowds, and it also makes travel less stressful, since it reduces the amount of luggage required for the trip home.

Exercise

When we have the least amount of time available, it is too easy to cut out exercise and use the time to do more work, run errands, or complete other tasks. Do not be tempted to skip your workouts during the holiday season. Exercise naturally reduces stress and will help you avoid the increased stress associated with the weight gain that comes out of eating too many holiday cookies.

If you can’t find the time for your regular workouts, make sure you do something physical every day. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Knead the bread by hand instead of using the bread maker.
• Dance in the kitchen to your favorite holiday tunes while you cook.
• Park in the last row of the shopping mall and walk, or for urban dwellers like me, do your shopping in a neighborhood where you can walk to every store.
• Take a walk with a family member and use the time to talk (also a good way to relieve stress).

Take Time Off

Take advantage of the times when your clients are on vacation to take a few days off yourself. Seriously. Take some actual time off with no client work. This works best in conjunction with the suggestion about getting ahead. I’ve been working like a mad woman for the past few days, and I plan to take Wednesday through Sunday off. OK, I’m lying a little bit. I plan to take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday completely off, but I’m secretly hoping to have time to work on some neglected non-client personal projects for at least a few hours over the weekend. These are those fun projects that I never quite have time to do, so it won’t feel like work.

Sleep

Make sure that you get plenty of sleep. While sleeping a few less hours every night might seem like a great way to get a few extra hours to finish the activities that are leaving you stressed, it will only make the problem worse. When I’m not getting enough sleep, I’m grouchy and less productive, which only increases my stress levels. Get the sleep that you need to increase the chances that you’ll be productive and accomplish more work in less time.

These are my top four tips for reducing stress during the holidays. How do you reduce holiday stress?

Image by Rick Turoczy used under Creative Commons.

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Whatever your plans, there’s a lot for the web worker to prepare before the holiday season hits and business in many parts of the world grinds almost to a halt. Here are some of the steps I’m taking to ensure things don’t go pear-shaped over the next month or two.

1. Work Plan

When time is short, I like to prepare a work plan which outlines what I need to do and how much time I have to do it in. I break those tasks down to a daily to-do-list and endeavor to stick to it. I make note of the date on which I can expect work to return to normal, so that I can ensure I’m prepared to hit the ground running when the wheels of commerce start turning again.

Like many freelancers, I’ll also be looking at my task list from a budget perspective this holiday season: How many billable hours will I need to fit in between now and when things pick up again in the new year? And where can I find work to fill any budget gaps?

2. Holiday Plan

You probably already have an idea of how much time you’d like to take off this holiday season, and how much vacation time you’ll be able to take. Once I’ve got an idea of the amount of work I have to do, I can schedule my break time to take in commitments with family and friends. But my vacation timeframe will also be affected by my colleagues’ and clients’ schedules.

We’ve all been through the frustration of working when everyone else is holidaying: you can’t get the inputs you need, you have trouble accessing information or gaining approvals — it can be a real nightmare, not to mention a complete waste of time.

Of course, depending on the types of jobs you have to do, you may find this “quiet time” while everyone else is vacationing to be a blessing for your productivity.

3. Connectivity Plan

Whether you’ll be Twittering pictures of your Thanksgiving turkey as it’s being devoured, or you’re heading for the hills, to a little place with no phone or web access, it’s fair to say that all web workers need some sort of connectivity plan for the holiday season.

For me, that plan will entail periods without connection. But work commitments will necessitate that I’m not away from my computer for more than a few days at a time. I’ll build this into my schedule as well, and try to stick to it on the basis that the break from the everyday will do me good.

Your connectivity plan may, of course, necessitate a packing list if you’re going away and need to take your gear with you, or even a wishlist of equipment you’d be happy to receive as gifts this season…

4. Goal Plan

Depending on your work and workload, you may choose, as I will, to set a rough goal plan for next year now.

Yes, now. I don’t want to sail into the new year and then start wondering what I’m going to do next. As a remote worker, I find that planning past the holiday season helps my motivation, and lets me maintain momentum through the lazy days ahead.

In some ways, it even helps me to relax over the holiday season: since I know I have things to get on with after the break, I don’t spend the time worrying about what’ll happen when the fun stops.

These are the kinds of plans I make against the ravages of the heady holiday season. How about you?

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How to Start Off Small With a Short Break

If you’re struggling to go on a holiday, start small. Start with a day off, if you have to, and go explore your surroundings. And consider trying the following:

1. Take the trip over a weekend to avoid missing too many work days.
2. Keep the vacation short so the thought of packing and unpacking doesn’t paralyze you.
3. Pick a place that allows you to pack as light as possible.
4. Go someplace within driving distance.

I took a Friday through Sunday vacation with my family to a hotel with an indoor water park about 30 minutes from home. I’d rather travel to a new city or country, but the thought of catching up with my work when I return stresses me. This vacation let me relax without worrying about work.

I didn’t take my computer. OK, I confess: My spouse took his and I did use it briefly while away, but at least it didn’t have my usual applications or tools. During the entire trip, I spent no more than an hour, at most, on the computer to do quick email checks.

Dealing with Your Vacation Fears

The things I feared would happen upon my return didn’t occur. I’m one of those people who cleans up as I work and handles things as they come in, rather than letting them pile up and facing a mountain. So I feared returning to:

• an overloaded inbox.
• too many client requests.
• the general catch-up involved.

Between the BlackBerry and laptop, I focused on keeping my inbox manageable without spending much time doing so. Most of us don’t get much email over the weekend, so a short break over a weekend means helps in that respect.

Preparing for the Next Vacation

After seeing see how well a short, in-town vacation can work, next you can travel a greater distance. Plenty of places offer great short getaways. Places like Las Vegas, campgrounds and resorts make great short vacations. If you plan one over a weekend, it’ll cut your worries of returning to an overwhelming inbox.

After conquering a few long weekend vacations, go the next step and take a week-long trip. If this makes you cower, compromise again. Pick three or four days out of the week to do work while spending the other days doing the vacation thing. Thursday offers tips for setting up an office away from home. Consider shortening your work hours by quitting earlier in the day or starting in the afternoon.

Another option is to attend a conference. Many conferences occur in cities where people tend to go on vacation. Start your vacation after the conference ends. You could have your vacation beforehand, but it might be harder to enjoy your time there knowing the conference lies ahead.

How do you ensure you get a well-deserved vacation without worrying about work?

Photo credit: Chris27

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