It’s been said that for every day you are gone from home or the office, it takes twice as many days to get re-acclimated when you return. That’s proven to be true in my own personal experience. The longer I’m gone on a work trip, the longer it takes for things at home and my office to settle back into normalcy.
Well, my wife was out of town this past week and she proved that this doesn’t have to be how things work. As I look back on the past several days I realize she put on a clinic for how to be out of town well. She will be coming home this evening. The house is in good order, our children are safe and have been prepared for school all week, we’ve been excited for her to have fun while she was away, and now we’re equally excited to smother her with attention when she walks through the gate at the airport tonight. In other words, I expect the re-acclimation period will take about 10 minutes instead of the expected 10 days.
How did she do it? 4 simple actions made it easy for my wife to be away from home:
- She spent 30 minutes preparing in advance of her trip. With my wife being the process guru in our home, I was ill-equipped to run the assembly line that keeps our home moving. Rather than leaving me to figure it all out, she made some awesome checklists – one for each day of the week. It told me the key items that needed to happen in order to make sure things operated smoothly.
- She provided clear expectations. She let me know that the most important thing to her was to come home to a clean home. She said that was more important to her than anything else because it would let her enjoy her time away more if she knew she could count on that. Done! If I know the target, I can hit it. One of the best lessons I’ve ever learned is that un-communicated expectations are disappointments waiting to happen.
- She made me feel valued while she was gone. When I dropped her off at the airport, my wife handed me a stack of little envelopes labeled with each day of the week. She told me to open one each morning. Inside of each envelope was a card with a short note that led me to a secret location in our home where a small gift was waiting for me. My note labeled “Wednesday” said, “Check my bottom bathroom drawer.” When I opened the drawer I found my favorite candy bar with a note that said, “I love you.” It was a little thing but it made me feel very special. Each day was equally as special because she had taken time to consider what would make me miss her most.
- She trusted we would take care of business. She never nagged us about what was done or not done. She didn’t check in every 5 minutes. She just trusted that we would be on top of it while she was gone. That trust made us all want to do the right thing so that she would know it was well placed.
What can we take away from this?
The things my wife did naturally are things we can all implement within our families and our offices. It occurred to me that I often fall short in one or more of these 4 areas each time I’m out of town. I can’t remember the last time I allocated 30 minutes in advance of a trip to make sure those I was leaving behind would have clear expectations for my time away or would feel valued while I was gone. It’s so simple but from this moment forward, when I have a trip out of town, I will also block off a 1/2 hour window in advance of the trip in order to implement actions #2 and #3. That will then make it easier to accomplish #4 while I am gone.
Un-communicated expectations are disappointments waiting to happen.
Comment Below:
- How long does it take you to get re-acclimated after being away?
- Is it the same time period for your home and your office or are they different?
- What else do you do to minimize the time required for the transition?
Bio for The Anonymous Donor
Executive and owner of a successful international business, a father of 3 children under age 15 (one with special needs), married more than 10 years to my college sweetheart, a multi-millionaire, a former professor, an avid reader, completed my graduate training at Harvard Business School (#HBS), and approach life as a follower of Christ. Passionate about helping other #HighAchievers to build stronger families and careers.
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