I try to take care of myself. Do you?
The five years I just spent working with Atara Bio were about as sweet as it gets; how often do you get a chance to grow a team from 3 to 300+ terrific people?
The five weeks I took when I left were sweet too. I didn’t take a break when I moved from my coaching practice to join Atara. I got smart enough to take a break when I left. And taking a break is the same advice I gave my former CEO, who will be moving on from Atara and taking some time off later this summer.
There’s thick research on the value of taking breaks during your workday to perform better. You can read (and practice easy tips) about it here.
The fact is that for many that there’s little chance for a full break – even on vacations – from the day to day of work. Most organizations don’t or for good reasons can’t follow the house rules of the company run by the Shonda Rhimes, who doesn’t answer emails or phone calls after 7 PM or on weekends and asks her team to do the same.
The vacation spot I used to frequent in Hawaii – tucked away in a Blackberry blind spot and inaccessible via next day Fed Ex – is now wired with internet and Wi Fi. Even when you advise folks to not to contact you unless it’s life, death or the end of baseball as we know it, they reach out with things like a change in a meeting date. 84% of execs report cancelling vacation in order to do work. Hunch is the other 16% who didn’t cancel worked on their vacation anyway.
The solution if you can’t have a get-away-from-it-all vacation is to grab real downtime between jobs or changes in roles at work, rather than jumping from one frenzy to another. While my downtime – the virtue of unused accrued vacation – may not be for everyone – the time away from work lets you reset, rethink, and get a fresh start, or as the NY Times recently wrote, a life between jobs.
UC Berkeley research notes that a real break makes you more productive as well as creative. Such goals are the name of the game – have impact, do good work, and advance your career if that’s what you want.
But with many people having kids, parents for whom they provide care, or pets, what can you do? What did my time “away” look like for a single parent like me?
It’s probably not sexy but it worked well. I did yard work for an unruly backyard, workshopped with the folks at The Grove on my leadership and startup team coaching skills, took a magical 8-day California Spring Break road trip with my 16 year old son, volunteered time at my son’s high school, and accomplished chores around the house that never get done. No exotic travel, no hurry hurry rush – just a down shift of pace and focus.
I’m back with the familiar reopening of my consulting practice, (now accepting clients new and known) energized, refreshed and ready to go.
As Janis Joplin once said, “Don’t compromise yourself – you’re all you’ve got.”
So take care of yourself. Take those breaks. The job and work will be there when you surface.