Twelve Days AFTER Christmas: Day 1: STOP!

There's nothing more difficult in small business (in my opinion) than transitioning from work-to-play and play-to-work. The lines are VERY blurry in this business because work for us as professional photographers is very often our "play" times but what our clients don't see a lot of is all the BEHIND THE SCENES stuff we do that really does feel a lot more like work:

- taxes,
- purchasing,
- budgeting,
- pricing,
- packaging,
- database management,
- inquiry management,
- meetings,
- training,
- education,
- testing the latest equipment,
- a zillion meetings,
- another zillion and 1/2 calls and emails,
- piles and piles of legal paperwork,
- contracts,
- model releases,
- equipment repair,
- file management,
- storage solutions,
- learning new software,
- editing, editing, editing,
- design,
- branding,
- merchandising,
- marketing,
- web design,
- slideshow development,
- forecasting,
- sales,
- retouching,
- vendor relations,
- and so much more but the list is already TOO long!

I often find I'm trying, in vain, to get the the bottom of my to-do list before I leave town to go visit family or go on an actual non-work vacation. Always stressed out and missing flights. I know there is a much better transition. Just STOP. AND SAY "NO"!

S-T-O-P

(ah, doesn't that feel better now!?)

Put the computers and lists away, and enjoy life!

Personally, I'll be leaving the country for a week in January during one of the largest photography conventions of the year. I spoke at it earlier this year (Imaging USA) but when it came down to it.... I just had to say "NO" for a change. Two weeks later, I'll be flying across the country to cozy up do a WORK STOP... an annual work-retreat of sorts. More on that perhaps when the time is right.

So my question for you for DAY 1 of these TWELVE:
When will you be taking time to STOP these next few weeks/months? What will you say NO to in order to do so?