MyPunchblog

I just came across a post by Fred Wilson (a NY based venture capitalist) that described how he is working on vacation.

I had a gutteral reaction to this post especially as Fred wrote about different ways to multi-task while on vacation. “A friend of mine listened in to a board call where he is an observer while skiing with his wife. He had the call on mute and the headphones under his helmet. We’ll have to ask his wife what kind of company he was on the hill that morning but that’s the kind of mutli-tasking we have resorted to at times.”

Oh Fred– as much as I respect you, this is wrong in soooo many ways. I believe the best way to take a vacation is to completely unplug and disconnect yourself from your daily routine. There are so many reasons to do this as a component of work/life balance; here are the most important ones:

1) It’s best for your colleagues: By remaining plugged in throughout your vacation, you’re not teaching your co-workers and colleagues to learn how to make tough decisions. In Fred’s case, he’s a valuable mentor to his portfolio companies. By not being available for a few weeks a year, you’ll help the CEO’s of your portfolio companies far more than by being involved in every decision. In some cases, the wrong decision will be made– but you know what? That’s ok. That’s part of the process for any CEO. Step away once in a while, and you’ll be rewarded by how self-sufficient your companies actually are.

Another note about this: In my experience, I’ve seen that the people who always stay plugged in are more likely to have trouble delegating responsibility than those who are able to step completely away once in a while. I’ve never worked with Fred, but I’m guessing that he may struggle at times with delegating tasks. By unplugging completely a few times a year, you’re training yourself to delegate. It’s a cathartic experience to step away from all decision-making for a handful of days. Try it once and you’ll be hooked.

2) It’s best for your family: I was struck by something that Fred wrote in his post: “The idea of a ‘get away from it all’ vacation is a romantic notion that I cannot seem to achieve as much as the Gotham Gal and my kids would like me to.” When you are constantly plugged in, you send the message to your family that you’re not fully engaged. They (obviously) want you to devote all of your energy to them, so they can feel in the hearts and minds that there is nothing that Dad would rather do than be on vacation with them. You can’t multi-task and effectively deliver this message. It requires truly “leaving it all behind.”

I’m sure that you would walk away from all of your work if something tragic happened to someone you loved. Don’t wait for that shocking phone call to change your behavior. You can choose to unplug and focus all of your energy now — and you’ll enjoy every minute of it more.

3) It’s best for you: When you constantly are plugged in, you’re always viewing the trees– and not seeing the forest. As we tackle challenges throughout our daily life, there’s a constant chatter of problem-solving going on in our brains. I find that it takes me a few days after the start of my vacation to remove all of the “trees” from my brain. Then, after a few days of mental quiet, I take the last two days of my vacation to think about “forest” items in my life. This is the true benefit of a vacation; to allow you to step away, quiet your mind, and re-emerge with new perspective and thoughts about life and work.

Too often in our lives we lose sight of our place in the world. Vacation enables us to reflect on how we fit into the world at large and examine the impact our daily lives have on the bigger eco-system around us. There’s no better feeling in the world than being able to recognize how it all fits together and then get back to the nitty-gritty tasks with that fresh perspective.

I recognize that people are different, and what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. But I’ll tell you this: unplugging has certainly been effective for me: some of the best ideas for MyPunchbowl.com came to me sitting on a sunny beach in the last two days of my vacation.

So Fred: give it a try. Promise your wife and kids that you’ll unplug for one week. Leave the blackberry at home. Tell your colleagues and portfolio companies that you’re unavailable. Quiet the noise inside your head for the first few days, and then focus 100% on your vacation for the next few days. Then on the last days of your vacation, grab a good old fashioned pencil and paper and write down some thoughts, trends, and ideas that come to mind. Some of your best ideas will come from your vacation notebook — and you’ll look at it with awe in years to come.

This entry was posted on March 22, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Startup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.