Here at RadReads we take vacation very seriously. Our employee handbook states: > After 3 months of full-time employment, RadReads has __an unlimited vacation policy__ A few bullets down it adds: > We want all vacation days to be __off the grid__ , which means that there’s zero expectation to check Slack, Email or other in-app notifications. TBH, the “off-the-grid” part has always freaked me out. Having been self-employed for over 6 years, there’s been very little separation between my “work” and my “non-work.” (I don’t have email on my phone, but trust me that doesn’t stop me from non-stop checking.) Now, with [a team of five]() it feels even harder to disconnect. Many of the team’s activities and outputs show up on my desk, requiring review or feedback. And as the _de facto_ COO/CFO, I approve payments, negotiate partnerships and execute contracts on a daily basis. How could I trust that everything would get done? How could I let go – both physically and emotionally? Would I truly be able to disconnect? With some rallying and encouragement from my team, here’s what I came up with: (My team also made it crystal clear that during my absence, I was setting an example. How could _they_ take an off-the-grid vacation if the CEO abides by a different set of rules?) So on Sunday the Hy family packed the car and headed to a small mountain cabin in Lake Arrowhead. Would I be able to commit to this digital disconnection? Or would I fall back into my old habits? ## A brief recap of our digital workspace As a fully-remote company we are very precise about our values and how we use our tools. We use these following principles: And we have an entire document (titled ___How we Work___) that documents (in 5,000 words, which are updated quarterly) our expectations: And we have 30 hour work weeks (which I’ve been slowly paring down from 40). Here’s [a recent Time Audit](): ![Blog post image](/images/blog/Screen-Shot-2022-03-05-at-8.15.08-AM-647x1024.png) So right out of the gates, the transparency of expectations has always created clear boundaries. And as I began my vacation, I deleted Slack from my phone, left my laptop at home (in favor of iPad, which is not conducive to productivity) and turned off all my Notion notifications. ## Bye bye Slack, hello Twitter The French philosopher, Blaise Pascal wrote: > “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” And with my commitment to stay off of all our digital channels, guess what I did? I opened another one. Yup, with two subtle moves, I was back online – firing away. First, I unblocked Twitter from my iPhone. (I use ___adult controls___ , to block all social sites and news sites.) My thinking: “It’s vacation, Twitter is not work, it’s play. Let’s bring it back.” (What I really was thinking: “Let’s try to find a way to make this time productive and grow our audience.) As if adding Twitter wasn’t enough, I bought an [annual subscription to Typefully](). It’s one of those tools that lets you create those annoying Tweetstorms, so I figured, why not? Adding insult to injury, one of my tweets went viral (by my standards) and so I found myself responding all day Monday: It didn’t help that we were snowed in, so while I could’ve been playing _Sorry_ with my wife and daughters, I was responding to comments about [eating the frog](), [podcasts on 2x speed]() and [Inbox Zero](). One of my colleagues even called out these addictive tendencies: ## Put down the phone, lay off the tweets Within 24 hours, Twitter became easy to ditch. The tragic invasion of Ukraine made tweeting about productivity inconsequential (not to mention _tone deaf_). I reinstated the ___adult controls___ setting to prevent the doom-scrolling. But I still had books. And podcasts. I had queued up podcast episodes on [pre-launching online courses]() and [finding product-market fit](). I had YouTube videos on [user research](). And physical copies of books on [Traction]() and [the 80/20 principle](). In short, I kept swapping one way of improving RadReads with another. ## But what about email and Slack? That part was actually quite easy. I know that when it comes to facing my temptations (sugar, alcohol, social media), I’m [either all-in or nothing](). And as I approached my daily 4 pm checking time, there were a few scheduling emails, some unexpected (positive) surprises and a few things that needed my approval. The __lack of communications__ was an absolute joy and it made me realize that even with our asynch policies, communications occupy a great deal of cognitive load. ## Radical delegation is… rad The most important realization was something that I already knew. We have a kick-ass team that is talented, autonomous and cares deeply about our business. We have workflows and systems that are effective. And our vision is clear. [Marian](), [Kate](), [Matthias](), Jaen and [Cole]() didn’t skip a beat in my absence. This team is moving me closer towards one of my $10K Questions: > What does RadReads look like without me? ## To conclude, I’m still a workaholic My week off taught me a lot about my tendencies and our business. And one thing still hasn’t changed. It’s a trait I had as a teenager, that propelled my Wall Street career and still lingers _in spite of 30 hour workweeks._ It’s __very hard__ for me to do things that don’t have outcomes. (Yup, even with surfing – I want to get _very good_.) And I’m sitting with that tension. One one hand, there’s a fire in my belly to __be the best at what I do.__ But with age, I’ve come to realize that many of these activities (ahem, _product management_ podcasts!) are pretty inconsequential to the things I value most: being present, loving others well… __and being at peace.__ _PS – If your team is interested in incorporating these asynch philosophies that will__make your colleagues smile__ , [The Rad Studio]() is open for new client engagements._