AUTOMATIONS TO SET AND FORGET
Stop working on your vacation.
We know. When you’re the boss, it’s hard to take a break, let alone take a real vacation. And you’re not alone — a new survey from Kabbage says that 60% of small business owners only take one full vacation a year, while 23% take less than two holidays off annually. When on holiday, 75% of small business owners report that they continue working.
We’re here to tell you to stop it.
Taking time to truly rest and recover is incredibly important to a sustainable life. It’s vital for your physical, mental, and emotional health. Vacations are good for your productivity and your relationships.
But how can you truly unplug and disconnect to get the full benefits of your vacation?
We’ve found that automations are the key! Honestly, automating tasks on a regular basis has been a game-changer for us, but they’re especially valuable when we’re on vacation. Here are a few of the automations you could set or services that you could use to ensure that you can fully relax on your next getaway:
Out-of-office messages — We see a lot of small business owners set up messages that are vague and say something to the tune of “I’m out on travel for the next few days and may be slower to respond than usual.” The problem with that message is that you are setting the expectation [both for yourself and the person who contacted you] that you will respond even though you’re theoretically on vacation. Try this instead: “Thank you so much for reaching out! I will be out of the office until [Day, Date]. I will respond to your message as soon as I can upon my return. Thank you!” This kind of response draws a clear boundary and provides people with a reasonable timeframe. If you work with a team, you could add in a remark such as “If this is an urgent matter, please contact [Name, Title, Email/Phone].”
Email forwarding — If your email truly needs to be monitored every single day, Gmail and other providers make it quick and easy to forward your emails to a colleague while you’re out. They can then take care of any matters that arise without disturbing you.
Media scheduling — Schedule your blog posts, social media posts, and email newsletters before you go. Depending on the platform you use, scheduling should be a built-in feature. You can plan, design, and prep your media ahead of time, and then choose the day and time you want it sent or published. For social media, we’ve found programs like Later or Hootsuite to be very helpful in this regard. It’s fine if you want to post real-time vacation updates, but prep the bulk of your content calendar ahead of time so you can focus on sipping margaritas, not making reels.
Set automatic responses within your social media apps — Meta will send an automatic response to people who DM you. It can be something simple like “Thanks for reaching out! We’ll be in touch soon.” Or, you can tailor it to your vacation and say something fun like “We’re away on an outdoor adventure. We’ll be back on [Day, Date] and look forward to connecting with you then!”
ManyChat [and similar programs] — “Comment ‘Notebook’ and I’ll DM you the link!” ManyChat allows users to set automated replies when followers comment with certain words or phrases. This could be a good way to continue to promote certain products or services while you’re OOO.
While not without its flaws, technology has gone a long way to help us achieve better work/life balance. So don’t be afraid to use the tools you have available to keep the trains running while you finally take that vacation you deserve!
