CAM practitioners seem to have a real challenge in leaving their practices for a decent vacation. The Too-Busy can’t seem to make the time, and the Not-Busy-Enough are afraid to leave, or don’t feel they can afford to.

Here’s the thing: vacation time is a like money. You need to manage it, or it’ll manage you. So regardless of why you may not be getting away (fear, cash flow, overbooking etc.), here’s a trick that’ll work every time: book the whole year now.

I know – it sound ridiculously simple, but it works. Booking your vacation time a year in advance is much like the “pay yourself first” mantra of financial planning – if you don’t take the initiative to do it, it’s not likely to happen. Your practice will expand to fit the time available in your life if you allow it too. So don’t.

Here are a few strategies to make this work for you:

Do it Now
Really – do it now. Talk it over with any spouses, partners, etc., and do it now. If you’re at the office, schedule the time off for the whole year now. If you’re not at the office, phone and leave the holiday dates for your staff to enter in the schedule. If you don’t have staff, write the dates down and enter them in your schedule the next time you’re in the office. Better yet, drive over there right now and do it. Isn’t a good vacation worth one extra drive to the office?

A Full Year in Advance, Minimum
Do the whole year. Even if you don’t know exactly when you want to do certain things, schedule the time anyway. Chances are, you can make your plans fit the schedule, or vice-versa. Either way, you’ve got to block it off well in advance before other obligations fill it up. You can’t wait until the last minute every time and expect to have a great vacation.

Stretch Yourself
If your vacation time is like most practitioner’s, you’re not taking enough and you should likely double last year’s down time. Don’t worry – just do it. (Think of it as setting a good health care example for your burnt-out, overworked patients.)

Trust
Forget the excuses. Just book the time and trust that the patients, cash and staff are all going to work out just fine. Part of the secret to this is that the commitment forces you to figure out the details – and they generally don’t turn out to be that hard to deal with.

In a future post, I’ll look at what exactly you should be doing with that office while you’re not there. In the meantime, enjoy the anticipation of some great vacation time this year!

Related Posts:
Choosing Office Hours for Your CAM Practice
5 Things to Do in Your Practice from Day One