Holidays for some are a nice gap in the monotonous work cycles in which they have found themselves or just a nice change of scene once or numerous times throughout the year. Though for those at a management (senior and above) level it can be difficult to essentially hand the keys over to what could be your baby of sorts.

This is especially evident for longer holidays, being attached to many local and national companies here in the UK, many of which founded and run by close family friends (both in and before my time) you generally share a bit of friendly banter and receive very insightful information at each and every turn.

One of the bigger topics being that of various experiences with holiday and the bantering that surrounds it, such as the texts, emails and phone calls periodically throughout the day to the office:

• 9am "Morning how's everything in the office?.... cheers ...."
• 10am "Ok, make sure .... and ... are ... "
• 12am "Just sitting down for lunch, how's the .... doing and has ... resolved ...."

So really how do you disconnect and enjoy your holiday to its full potential? be it cold turkey (leave the phone, laptop, pager, carrier pidgin etc at home) or perhaps rely on your manger or director to take over the day to day running? or .. the list goes..

In essence how do you escape the office for those blissful weeks or days? , as it seems from various sources that it really isn't as easy as leaving someone in your wake, as there is a lot at risk. So what works for you?

(Can probably tell the planes booked and the consideration of method is yet undecided )

Good for you on booking the trip! I actually have taken extended breaks for up to 3 weeks and have disconnected from the computer at the most 10 days in a row (that was earlier this year actually). I have taken a number of 2 and 3 day disconnect trips where I am connected via Cell if someone needs to reach me, but I don't reach them.

If you have a reliable staff at hand, you should be able to trust them to take the break you need. Afterall, if you trust them enough with being the face of your customer when you're looking over their shoulder, you should be able to trust them to work for 48 hours without having to babysit.

Being able to disconnect is essential, especially to those that run our own businesses and work more than the standard "8 hours" in a day. You have to be able to take off for a day or two and not freak out.

In years past I would take off mid week for the day and play golf with buddies. While the cell is available if something critical came up, taking the break is a necessity to clear the mind and think of new things, new strategies or just focus on a mohito!

Fingers crossed for your trip! Leave the management of your business to the managers that you put in place. They're there to make everyone's life easier, including yours!

What Conor said
Sometimes it is hard to disconnect, but that's why you train others in your organization to pick up the reins and run with it. Have a great time on your break.