Tips for a Summer Staycation

As a summer of financial uncertainty heats up, a lot of small business owners are probably thinking the same thing: This is a good time to stay home and save some money. 

But never fear. While you are scaling back, there are genuine opportunities to be had. Because when you remove the stress of travel logistics — the missed connections, overbooked/canceled flights, and scary vacation rentals — you get to maximize relaxation. And when approached correctly, a staycation can still give you the opportunity to reframe and see yourself through the lens of a new environment.

Yes, this is how I’m going to reframe the staycation: as a time to gain perspective and reassess priorities. Rather than fretting about the future and coming up with contingency plans, as busy entrepreneurs are wont to do, a staycation is a good time to remind yourself of what you like and who you are in the present moment.   

Here are some suggestions for how to go about it.

Take Stock of the Situation

One of my favorite productivity books is David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which has launched a whole productivity movement and its own website. Allen suggests that you write every single thing that you have been meaning to do on its own piece of paper (I use 3x5 cards), then input each of these items to a calendar (old school or virtual) so that you can tackle them head-on when the scheduled time arrives. 

A staycation is the perfect time to execute the first two steps in Allen’s productivity plan. It allows you to see the big picture of what needs to be done without focusing strictly on your career goals and agenda. And if you are following Allen’s system to the letter, you knock off all those little tasks — the ones that will only take a few minutes, but you have sometimes put off for years, like naming a beneficiary for a policy or updating emergency contacts.

Learn Something Useful

I spent last week teaching myself about the fixed-income market. It took days of watching YouTube videos and looking at multiple bond and annuity configurations, but I finally have a grasp of the basics, and I say with confidence that I understand how to purchase a corporate bond, which was the goal of this exercise. 

What do you want to learn? Maybe it’s something as simple as how to choose the perfect color to paint your front door, or how to communicate in French during your next out-of-town vacation. Perhaps you’d just like to know more about the birds that live in your backyard.

Whatever it is, a staycation gives you the time and space to focus on learning that useful skill, hobby, or talent you’ve been meaning to get around to. Even if all you get around to is figuring out the first step — like getting the Merlin app to identify bird calls on your phone — you are closer to living in a way that resonates more closely with the person you want to be! 

Build Family Traditions

In some way, you never know what will turn out to be a lasting family tradition. When my daughter insisted that I play Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” repeatedly in the car when she was in kindergarten, I had no idea that we would spend 1000s of hours listening to Swift’s expanding oeuvre in the car for the rest of her childhood. You can probably think of traditions like this yourself. 

A staycation is the ideal time to start a tradition deliberately. It could be making a special breakfast and eating it outdoors. It could be walking the dog together as a family. For my family, it’s going to a certain lobster shack on the coast of Maine as soon as it opens for the season.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter what it is. Developing family traditions is something that can be neglected when you are in the mindset of the daily grind. A staycation gives you space and time to be deliberate about the time you spend with the people you love the most.

Be a Tourist

You know how it is — when you live someplace, you stop exploring its attractions. Chances are you haven’t been to that new food truck everyone is raving about. You’ve never explored that famous cave right outside town or done a tour of the local wineries. 

Taking a staycation is the perfect way to visit a few of the local destinations you’ve been hearing about from friends and colleagues. If you have children, offer to take your kids’ friends along on some of these day trip adventures. You’ll strengthen bonds with their friends' parents, and they may even return the favor someday. Or you can make friends with the parents yourself and invite them along!

Splurge on a Local Indulgence

I have friends whose idea of a staycation — which they take every year — is to book themselves into a 5-star hotel and use its services to live like the Kardashians for 72 hours.

The same principle applies to spas, casinos, dude ranches, resorts, and other local spots that cater to rest and relaxation. Take a few days to unwind in total indulgence. You’ll still save money and get the experience of travel, but at the same time, you can skip the airport, jet lag, short tempers, and crowds. 

Host a Party

Why not make your staycation a commemorable event by hosting a good old-fashioned garden party? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy — barbeque and a bucket full of cold beverages are enough to get folks together. You can also host a potluck or order food from a favorite restaurant and have your guests bring the beverages. 

I just got invited to an impromptu event to christen a boat my neighbor has spent over a year restoring. This reminded me that a party doesn’t have to mark a birthday, holiday, or anniversary. It can be for any reason, and sometimes these small achievements make the best celebrations.

The purpose of holding any kind of party, in case it’s not obvious, is to strengthen your bonds with neighbors and friends in the community. Having a strong community is correlated with longevity, and when we are working long hours every day, we often don’t make time for these relationships, relying too much on casual conversation with colleagues and quiet time with family. If it’s been a while since you entertained, give it a whirl. You might inspire new trends in the neighborhood.

Some Final Thoughts

When you consider all the logistics involved, out-of-town vacations are their own kind of work. They entail hours of trip planning, travel logistics, stress and uncertainty and, in some cases, negotiating in a foreign language. After days of pounding the cobblestones, seeing all that famous city has to offer, you can feel so drained that you need a vacation to recover from your vacation! 

On the other hand, a staycation has several advantages:

• You will save money.
• You get to sleep in your own bed — believe it or not, this is huge for some people!
• You'll be able to spend real quality time with your family. 
• You may just get to discover some cool places and activities in the place you live, ones you never knew existed!
  

Most significantly, if handled correctly, a staycation is a good time to take stock of what really matters to you outside the office.

One of my other favorite productivity books is Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Covey posits that in order to lead a meaningful life, you should engage in activities in Quadrant Two of the Covey Square — activities that are important but not urgent — rather than running around with your hair on fire in Quadrant One (activities that are important and urgent) — or wasting your time playing video games and engaging on social media in Quadrant Four, the zone of non-urgent, unimportant activities.

Quadrant Two activities are practices you develop that are self-enriching. It’s hard to get around to activities like this when you are trying to get a small business off the ground. You have to be disciplined enough to schedule family time, time to cook healthy meals and get enough exercise, time to learn how to snowboard or learn a foreign language. But these activities are the ones that allow you to lead a meaningful life. 

Reassessing your priorities, identifying what you want from life, and taking the first steps to spend more time in Quadrant Two, are a great goals for a staycation. 

If being in Quadrant Two also means you want to take a few minutes every day to search out new business opportunities — we won’t tell anyone! — Dealstream makes it simple. Using sophisticated AI technology, we will select the best prospects for you and deliver them right to your inbox in the form of personalized emails. 

Contact us today to see how we can help you find the business of your dreams.