How to Take a Vacation Without Pausing Your Business
Summer's over. Yes. But, the idea of summer doesn't have to be.
There is still time to plan a family getaway, or a solo retreat. There is still time to leave the to-do list behind, long enough to enjoy that massage appointment you’ve been wanting to book or that brunch spot you’ve been wanting to check out.
But, in order to do summer well, I found that there are 3 ingredients you might need.
Before I understood these ingredients, I felt overwhelmed with my to-do list, enjoying my work but still unsure when I'd be able to come up for air. If you’re a founder, a business owner or a leader in your institution, I'm sure at one point, you’ve felt that way too. The responsibilities keep pilling up, and there never seems to be a right time to step away.
So, let me tell you about my summer as I share what I learned with you.
3 Ingredients for a Stress-Free Summer:
1. Scheduled time off
Resting is not something you can actually avoid. You can delay it all you want, but at some point, your mind and body will protest and demand it. That's what happened to me.
I had gotten into the habit of taking one day a week to stop work and rest, something some of us call Sabbath. Sabbath Sundays were a great reprise from the busy week. But, when I started adding too much community time and not enough actual resting time, I started feeling the effect of the busy life. And so, I knew I needed to step away in order to be a better team leader, a better creative, a better business owner.
We’ve been conditioned to believe that resting is unproductive, when in fact, it has quite the opposite effect. In one scientific review, published in the Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the authors summarized the findings of Eccles et al. on the effect of rest in athletes:
“Often rest and recovery are used synonymously. However, recovery is about returning the mind and body to an optimal state whereas resting is physically stopping activity and detaching psychologically. Resting may or may not lead to recovery in either the short or long term. Importantly, however, if recovery is the goal, resting becomes a necessary practice to achieve that goal. In order to recover, we need both components of rest: the cessation of physical activity and the psychological detachment. Both can be equally draining and deserve attention (Eccles et al., 2022).”
Even though we are not all athletes, the kind of work that we do requires we train our minds and bodies to perform it well. And rest is a big part of that.
So, that's what I decided to do as well. I planned the itinerary, booked the flight, packed my little suitcase.
Now, once time off was decided, that's when the pressure bubbled up. I had less than two weeks to get everything ready before going on break…
2. A habit of delegating
Bad news. This is not something you’ll be good at right away. If you’ve always had a hard time letting go and letting others on your team take care of things, welcome to the type A club. It's ok, come take a seat and let's rewire our brains together.
I first realized the importance of delegating after watching Craig Groeschel's session at the Global Leadership Summit a few years back. After his talk, I knew things would have to be different. But how? How would I even start?
That's when this formula Dr. Thierry Laplanche shared with me during a podcast recording brought things into perspective for me.
The formula was simple: delegate = trust + verify.
The first part was trust. It means hiring the right people, the kind of team you CAN actually trust, the kind of people who are “faithful” as the Bible puts it in Luke 16:10:
“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” - Luke 16:10
Please note that if you’re in the sowing phase of your business, you are still building a solid team and a solid system. It might be a hard season, a season where you are toiling, working long hours while juggling a whole lot. Be patient. Building a team you can trust might take some time, but it's a worthwhile endeavor.
I am so proud of our team at Kayasah. Over the years, we’ve been able to create a culture where each hire is kindhearted and dedicated to the work and to our clients: from past interns to full time staff. And, one of the things I am most proud of is the fact that, regardless of who in the team is serving our clients, they all get the same level of kind and compassionate care.
Now, the next part of the formula is to verify. This is where some of us fail at times.
Verifying doesn't mean micro-managing. It means accountability.
What we’ve done, over the years, is have a system on Notion where we assign tasks. This way, we can track who's in charge of what, when the tasks are due, the level of priority and the results of the assignments. If you’re interested in a system like that, reply back and we’ll add you to the waitlist.
What was hard for me, and what I needed to learn as the second ingredient to the Stress-Free Summer, was to assign tasks, embrace the messy when they’re not done exactly and precisely the way that I imagined it in my head, trust that the team would execute, but also keep them accountable along the way, checking the work and giving feedback when needed.
Is your brain rewired yet? These 2 ingredients now lead to the third, and most important one.
3. A marketing system that runs without you
Imagine hopping on a plane, putting on your headphones and pressing the “Airplane Mode” button without internally panicking because, it's all taken care of!
That's what happened to me.
I just came back from a one-month vacation. And for the entire month, I wasn't checking my phone every five minutes. I wasn't stressed about content. I wasn't wondering if something had been forgotten.
I was actually enjoying my trip, visiting museums, spending quality time with family and friends, sneaking snacks into the theater to watch the new Spiderman movie...
How?
Because my team had my back. Tasks were completed on time. Client meetings still happened. Reports were delivered. Projects kept moving. And our social media stayed active.
Now imagine having that same peace of mind for your business. You open Instagram and realize your brand has been posting consistently all week.
People are commenting.
Messages are coming in.
Your business looks active.
And you barely had to think about it.
That's the power of systems.
Consistency shouldn't depend on your availability.
That's exactly why we created “Airplane Mode”: your outsourced marketing department.
We plan. We create. We schedule. We manage. So you don't have to think about what to post every day.
Every month, we take care of:
✓ Strategic Content Planning
✓ Content Calendar
✓ Copywriting
✓ Scheduling
✓ Community Management
Everything is organized before the month even begins.
So, instead of spending your vacation approving posts, answering content questions, or worrying about your online presence, you can finally disconnect...without your business disappearing.
Summer may be over, but it's not too late for you.
If you’re ready to finally rest and take that vacation without putting your marketing on pause…
…or if you’re simply ready to start having a marketing team working on growth for your business while you focus on operations, finances and more, book your free Discovery Call today, and let's put your business on Airplane Mode.
As always, I'm rooting for you!
Mel
References
Anameje, H. C., & Ifeukwu, O. C. (2026). The imperative of rest: Enhancing spirituality and productivity in a contemporary society. IRASS Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. https://irasspublisher.com/article/THE-IMPERATIVE-OF-REST-ENHANCING-SPIRITUALITY-AND-PRODUCTIVITY-IN-A-CONTEMPORARY-SOCIETY
Luke 16:10 NLT. https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.16.10.NLT
Let's work together...
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