You've worked hard all year and your family wants to spend some quality time with you away from normal, everyday life. So you plan a vacation somewhere to relax and switch off for a week or two.

But, deep down you know switching off completely won’t be possible. If your business is your livelihood or you're just going through a busy period, you might find the lure of work hard to wiggle away from.

I myself am a business owner, husband, father, and I also love to travel. It took me a while to understand out how to balance travel and work, but I manage it pretty well now, I think. Here is what I do...

Organise my workload
The time leading up to a holiday can be quite stressful, but it’s important to get everything in order before you go away. Holidays are supposed to be a time to relax and destress, so you don’t want to be worrying about work.

I always feel that I haven’t left myself enough time to get everything together, but somehow things get done.

Creating a clear work schedule for the month leading up to a holiday helps me keep on track and not waste time. Having a comprehensive list of tasks to get through helps relax my mind and get work done.

Prepare clients and employees
Your daily routine will be different while you are on vacation, but your clients and colleagues will be going about their schedules as normal. It is important to inform them in advance that while on holiday you will only be available at a certain time.

There is no reason why a business cannot continue as normal just because you are working remotely rather than at your desk.

Ensure that your employees are setup with enough work to keep them busy when you are away, and know what to do and how to contact you in case a problem arises.

I find that it is helpful to contact my most important clients just before I board a long distance flight to remind them I will be uncontactable for a while.

Setup my technology
If you are traveling to an international location for your holiday then it is a good idea to get your phone unlocked before you go.

International roaming fees can be really expensive, so unlocking your phone means that you can buy a prepaid SIM card loaded with data that can be used abroad, or purchase a local SIM card when you arrive at your destination.

Personally, I always buy a local sim card because you can find a provider that offers the best service in the area. Then I use the mobile hotspot feature on my iPhone and work on my laptop.

Being able to use mobile data means that I don’t have to worry about whether or not there will be a decent wifi connection where I am staying.

Try to avoid multitasking
Time is precious when on vacation, so it can be tempting to try and cram as much work into one session as possible.

I used to dedicate an entire day in the middle of my vacation to work, with the idea that I could get caught up on everything and then leave it. But, I found that I was juggling work and interacting with my wife and kids, which led me to rush things and make mistakes and disappoint my family.

And when vacation was over, I had a massive backlog of work from the second half of the holiday when I didn’t check anything.

So, now I block out an hour or so each morning to go through my emails and tasks. I find this enables me to keep up-to-date with work, and have more time to spend with my family without getting distracted.

Write shorter replies
After reading this Huffington Post article, I decided to try writing shorter emails and replies to social media posts. I found that writing a shorter reply saved me time - which I could then dedicate to other tasks - and meant I received shorter responses, which saved more time as I wasn’t burdened with having to comb through reams of text.

As it turns out, shorter replies actually improved the quality of my emails and social media posts. They are simple and to the point, with factual content and clear requests, which seem to elicit much more positive responses from clients.

Avoid using the phone when I don’t have to
You only get a short amount of holiday time each year, so make it count. I found that the more I used my phone, the more tempted I was to look at work stuff.

I would use my phone for everything - taking family pictures, finding the best-reviewed restaurants, booking trips etc. It was always on me and I couldn’t help myself from regularly taking a quick look at what was happening with work.

So, I decided to invest in a decent camera and now when I go on holiday I ask people for recommendations of where to eat and pick up leaflets to find interesting tours.

Conclusion
Leaving my business in the hands of others for a week or two is not ideal, but taking a holiday is an important part of life for me and my family. It’s a time for us to be together, relax and explore new cultures and environments.

Being able to keep on top of work while away is a necessary evil for me, and the 6 things I described in this article are the best ways I have found to do that without disrupting my vacation time.

If you have any tips of your own then please feel free to comment below, I’m always looking for ways to limit the time I have to work on holiday.