A short trip can be something to work toward all year. Here’s how to choose the dates, fund it in small steps and leave your business in good order.
I used to call my trips “little resets.” I’d come home refreshed, refocused and ready to work again. My own goal is two a year, with at least one when life allows. Yours might be one long weekend, a family trip or a single night somewhere quiet. The size matters less than the timing.
Here’s the pattern worth avoiding: you’ll take a break “once things calm down,” and then a launch, a deadline and a school event fill every open week. When you run your own business, nobody books your time off for you. So book it first.
Choose the dates before anything else
Pick your reset dates now, even roughly, and put them on the calendar before you plan launches or content. Then plan work around them instead of the other way around.
A few questions help you choose:
- When are your busiest weeks for work and family? Avoid those.
- Is there a natural pause, such as the week after a product launch or between school terms?
- How much notice do you need to prepare content and customer support ahead of time?
Dates on the calendar change how the weeks before them feel. You’re working toward something specific.
Build a Reset Fund in small steps
A Reset Fund is money set aside for one purpose: your next trip. Giving it a name and a target makes it easier to protect.
- Set a rough target. Add up five categories: accommodation, transport, food, activities and a buffer for surprises. A buffer of around 10% is one example. Some trips need more.
- Divide by the weeks until you leave. A trip six months away needs a much smaller weekly amount than one six weeks away. That’s another reason to choose dates early. If you already have money set aside, subtract it from the target before dividing by the remaining weeks.
- Give it a separate home. A separate savings account or envelope keeps the fund from blending into everyday spending.
- Add to it on a schedule. Tie deposits to something regular, like each payday or each product sale.
One honest note: saving cash and paying in installments are different things. Splitting a purchase into payments can feel like saving, but it’s a debt you’ve committed to repay. If you use any buy-now-pay-later tool, count it as spending, read the repayment terms and fees first, and only use it for money you already have planned.
Prepare your business before you leave
A reset works best when you’re not checking email from the beach. Start getting ready about two weeks before you go. Close the Laptop: Prepare Your Business for a Week Away walks through it step by step, from telling clients to writing your out-of-office message.
For the house, The Leaving-Home Checklist covers the week before, the day you leave and your first evening back.
Small resets count too
Not every year allows for a big trip. A day somewhere new, an evening away from screens or a weekend with no work on the calendar can still give you something to look forward to. Planning a smaller reset well often does more than postponing a bigger one indefinitely.
Your next step
Open your calendar and choose one possible reset date in the next six months. Then add up the five budget categories and divide by the weeks until you go. That number is your Reset Fund’s weekly goal.
Shane
Want more ideas like this? The Letter brings you one practical idea at a time for building a business that leaves room for the rest of your life.
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