When you know a month or so in advance that you’ll be taking a week’s vacation, does the knowledge of your impending break from work cause you to work more, or do you plot along at your normal pace regardless of the time you know you’ll be spending away from the business? My guess is that if you asked 100 entrepreneurs that very same question, at least 90 of them would say that an impending vacation or weeklong business trip would indeed cause them to work extra hours, if not holidays and weekends too.

My point? Well, I’m heading to one of the dark spots on the map tomorrow, and if the weather cooperates, I’ll be gone for the better part of the next week; and while I’ll only be gone for five or six days, I’ve easily logged an additional three weeks worth of work in anticipation of the trip.

Like so many of my colleagues at Doba, I’ve been working a lot of extra hours since the beginning of August. Nights, weekends, and even the Labor Day holiday… it hasn’t really mattered… planning my work so I could work my plan has become one vicious circle. As is usually the case when I determine weeks in advance that a serious break from work is called for, I’ll get to a point where I can’t sleep. In pre-break mode, I’ll wake up at 3:00 in the morning because my mind is racing with a million ideas and things that need to get done. By 4:00 AM I’m at the office, and because I know I’ll be gone in just a few weeks, I’ll stay late—or go home for dinner with the family, and then head back to the office for just a few more hours of work (sound familiar to any of the entrepreneurs out there?).

So here I am, just hours removed from removing myself from my office, co-workers, family, cell phone, and business advisors, and I find myself asking the following questions:

• Does my trip—a backpacking expedition with three co-workers and two non-work-related friends into Wyoming’s Wind River Range–really solve anything, or does the trip itself cause the very thing that I’m seeking solace from?
• Does the backcountry trip actually cause the balance to tip too much towards the work side of the equation, and then tip back to the center once I return, or does it provide the break I so desperately need, which in turn allows me to gain valuable perspective and insight?
• And finally, if I didn’t take any time away from work, would I just get into a zone of work/life balance and go forever, or would the pressure ratchet up to the point where I’d become so burned out that I wouldn’t be of use to anyone?

These are the questions I’ll attempt to answer over the next week (I find that I need at least three-plus days in order to detach myself from the mind-consuming business-related thoughts that keep me awake at all hours of the night). Here’s to taking time to clear your mind and to using your alloted time away from work to make sense of things.