27.07.10  Guest columnist: Vanessa Clark   |   Give the frog a break   |   I took a holiday last month. My first real, proper, planned holiday since leaving the corporate cubicle more than two years ago. Not a long weekend. Or an enforced “staycation” over Christmas and New Year. I had a proper, planned holiday.

When I took the leap into freelancing, I didn’t have any specific ideas around holidays. I guess I kind of thought I would still take holidays, but not have to worry about what the rest of the team was doing, and making sure there was always cover over the end of the year.

But then for the next two years, when I had the time for a holiday, I didn’t have the money and was too busy stressing about attracting new business. Or, when I had the money for a holiday … guess what, I was so busy working to earn the money, that I didn’t have time for a holiday.

But then, like the metaphorical frog that gets boiled slowly and doesn’t hop out of the boiling water, unlike his buddy that gets dunked straight into hot water and so jumps straight out, I forgot how important it is to take a real holiday.

Sticking with my yucky boiled frog metaphor, simply breaking my routine made me realise that I was placing too much emphasis on work and work-related activities. To my surprise, my clients did not go out of business because I wasn’t at the other end of the phone or email for five days (shock, horror!). To my absolute amazement I didn’t miss out on something hugely significant because I wasn’t checking Facebook or Twitter every hour. To my complete astonishment my cell phone didn’t disappear in a puff of smoke because I let calls go straight to voicemail and only checked the voicemails ages later.

In fact, after the first day of withdrawals, I started resenting checking in on my emails once a day just in case Business Day had emailed me an urgent request for an interview with one of my clients. (In fact, if anyone has any suggestions for how soloists can unplug totally, I would love to hear it. My compromise was to ask any one with an urgent inquiry to text me – and on the whole, barring one annoying exception, people self-selected pretty well).

From a pure enjoyment point of view, I loved not being tied to someone else’s schedule. I didn’t have to be anywhere, at any specific time, with reams of information prepared.

Interesting. So if I can do this for five days, surely I can do this for a morning every so often?

Then of course there are the usual benefits to going on holiday:

• Give your brain a break. It’s essential to refresh those reserves of creativity and intellect, and it’s amazing what this does for your productivity.
• Breaking your routine is great for getting exposure to new people, different perspectives, new ideas and new concepts.
• I always find that I get more exercise and eat a bit healthier when I am on holiday – definitely a good habit to keep.
• And having a break from the treadmill is definitely a good opportunity to review what you are doing, pat yourself on the back, and do a bit of planning for what’s next.

I’d love to know what works for you. Do you go on holidays? How do you manage to fit regular breathers into your schedule? And what do you find are the main benefits of taking a break? Let us know your thoughts over at our Facebook discussion board.

About the author

Vanessa Clark is a former journalist who cut her PR teeth with a global tech start-up based in London in the early 2000s. Back in South Africa, she looked after marketing strategy and implementation for Clickatell, the bulk SMS company, before launching into freelance territory.

Her company, Twokats Communications, provides PR and communications services to a range of interesting South African-based companies, doing things differently and making a difference in the world. Current clients include BSkyB's TEAMtalk media, Rennie Property eNetworks and JobCrystal.