HOW TO: finally take that "work-free" vacation and not feel guilty.

For years I never had a vacation where work issues didn't pop up.

A call from my boss,

an urgent slack message from a teammate

or a frantic email from a client.

What might have caused this?

This is how my pre-vacation handover looked like:

"OK team, all the best in my absence.

If you need anything I'm just a call away!"

"OK boss, I'm off, the team knows what to do.

If you need anything I'm just a call away!"

Not surprisingly, something always came up.

I'd return from my vacation, needing another vacation.

It felt like I'd never been away.

My blood pressure felt likewise.

This went on till I finally came upon a simpler way.

A 3-level handover system that finally let me

take a real vacation and freed my team to take ownership.

Here it is:

Level 1: The "Don't Tell Me" List

- Regular customer questions

- Weekly reports

- Team meetings

- Standard approvals

→ Team handles it, logs it, I review later.

Level 2: The "Tell Me Later" List

- Customer complaints

- Resource conflicts

- Project delays

- Budget tweaks

→ Team solves it, summarises in one update.

Level 3: The "Tell Me Now" List

- Anything with a financial impact above ₹XX,000

- Issues affecting XX+ customers

- Reputation risks

- Legal matters

→ Team escalates immediately.

That's it.

No complex documents.

No endless meetings.

No "what if" scenarios.

Try this today:

1. Pick your most common interruption.

2. Decide which level it belongs in.

3. Tell your team.

4. Test while you're still around.

.....and go from 50+ vacation interruptions to barely any.

Your team can handle more than you think.

They just need the framework to do so.

What's constantly interrupting your time off?