Today I practice taking fully unplugged vacations. No laptop. No email. Barely a glance at my text messages to see if something really urgent has come up.

It wasn’t always this way. For years, I multi-tasked on vacation. I’d tap away at emails while my husband drove, squeeze in some work time before the kids got up, and review marketing plans from my lawn chair at the beach.

The first time I unplugged, my family noticed. Just two days into vacation my 13-year-old son thanked me for not working.

It’s a moment that’s stuck with me ever since.

Disconnecting from Work

I hear leaders of client-driven companies bemoan their inability to completely unplug on vacation. They have a litany of reasons, all of which feel real and legitimate: it can’t be done because our clients are too demanding, my inbox will be too unruly when I return, I’m too busy...the list goes on and on.

Yet the value of stepping away from email, voicemail, texts, and any other technology that ties you to the office during vacation has been proven. I knew that unplugging would be good for me (and my family) and would ultimately increase the energy and creativity I brought back to work.

How did I do it? Here are seven tips to completely unplug while on vacation:

1) Trust your team.
Create a climate of empowerment and transparency before you go. Clearly communicate that you completely trust your team members to cover you when you’re gone. Talk to your team members about who will handle which aspects of your work and ask what else they need in order to feel comfortable doing so. All of the work we’ve done to clarify roles, discuss capacity and stay connected during the regular course of work pays dividends when one of us goes on vacation.

2) Delegate.
Look at your to-do list two days before you leave for vacation and consider what you can realistically accomplish before you go. Focus on the few things you have to do yourself and delegate everything else. Spend those two days before vacation clearly communicating project status and what may come up while you’re out, rather than trying to deliver it all yourself. I make two to-do lists during this time—one to capture what I need to do or delegate before I leave, and one post-vacation list so I can remember what I have to do once I get back.

3) Hand over your inbox.
Give a team member access to your inbox to monitor and dispatch emails, delete spam, and respond to anyone who might not have gotten the message that you’re unplugged. Of course, setting email “rules” can help file emails while you’re gone, too. Contacting clients and prospects in advance also reduces the size of my inbox while I’m gone. And team members know not to cc: me on stuff since we’ll cover it in our debrief meetings when I get back.

4) Be a role model.
Call all of your clients and prospects that may need something while you’re gone to let them know that you will be fully unplugging. Ask if there’s anything they need before you go, and set clear boundaries about what will be delivered before you go on vacation vs. after. Our clients and prospects fully respect and support our unplugged vacations (and they are busy and in demanding roles themselves).

5) Leverage your auto-responder.
Be very clear in your auto-responder message about who is covering you. Include the date you’ll return and be transparent about the fact that you’re unplugging. I listed each of my team members with instructions on who to call or email for each specific need that clients, press, or prospects might have while I’m out.

6) Choose one emergency technology.
Agree on only one tech tool that team members will use if you really have to be reached. For us, it’s text. That way, I could look at my phone on vacation and know that if I didn’t have a text staring at me on my home screen, all was well at the office.

7) Pay it forward.
Upon your return, thank your team members personally for covering for you. Schedule briefing meetings on your first day with each team member, so you can quickly get back up to speed and prioritize. And make it clear that you’ll pay it forward by covering them on their vacation, so they can enjoy unplugging as well.

My team was busy while I was out—it can be stressful to do your job and part of another’s job as well. But knowing that you’re going to have the favor returned when you go on vacation goes a long way to making it worth it!

Turns out, disconnecting was good for my team too. Here’s what one of them had to say, “I felt empowered being able to help while Kyra was out, and I felt a renewed sense of energy around her enthusiasm when she returned.”

Invest in your own wellbeing. Contact 15Be about a workshop for your team or association. Wellbeing workshops include Boundary Setting, Energy Management, and Owning Your Career.