Seize the Holidays with this Terrific Vacation Strategy

I cultivate a strong boundary between work and not-work. So when a client introduced me to the concept of an email sabbatical, it felt superfluous. It seemed like overkill. And, as a point of pride, I had to take on the challenge! As I prepared for a trip in late December, I set up my email system for a full sabbatical. It seemed like a lot of steps when an out-of-office would be simpler. But I soon forgot that effort as I closed my laptop and packed my bags for my trip.

The first part of my trip included the hectic hurry-up-and-wait of air travel followed by the joyful reunion with familiar faces. Eventually, I had a moment of down-time to myself. Out of pure habit, I turned to my phone as I had many times in my trip so far. But this time I started running the circuit: check phone game, scroll facebook until bored, check phone game again, play other phone game, see if anything new is happening on facebook, check email… and that’s when it hit me. There were no emails in my inbox and there hadn’t been for more than a day.

The panic that rose inside me of “OMG MY BUSINESS IS DYING” subsided as soon as I’d remembered that I set up the email sabbatical. I also realized in that instance that I’d caught myself in a lie. My “strong boundary between work and not-work” had a gaping hole. Yes, I gave myself permission to ignore all emails while on vacation, but I still looked at them. I even read some. And deleted the spam. And made a quick reply for that one special circumstance. And… yep, that boundary was permeable and it had an impact on my ability to truly tune out of work.

That vacation was an escape from “the usual” in so many wonderful ways, in large part due to my email sabbatical. Work never once interrupted my time away. Plus, I wasn’t worried about the massive backlog of emails that I would come home to. And that’s the beauty of an email sabbatical.

What is an Email Sabbatical?

Dana Boyd invented the Email Sabbatical and you’re welcome to read her explanation. The basic premise is that you set up your email to auto-archive all your incoming emails. Your autoresponder is set to inform all senders of what’s going on, so they know you’re not just ignoring them. Archiving the emails means you can still see them if you need to. This hinges on the reality that so many emails we receive are not actually important nor urgent. If something actually is important, the email does still exist and you can read it when you’re back to work. For urgent items, the autoresponder can include an alternative method to contact you. But you want this method to be difficult/uncomfortable so that only urgent AND important communication gets through.

Colleagues and clients might find all this to be a radical idea. Set yourself up for success by verbally telling everyone that you’ll be on sabbatical ahead of time. I skipped this on my first go rationalizing that many folks are unavailable for the winter holidays. Also, I anticipated reviewing all the archived emails upon returning to work. After relaxing on my vacation, I did not proactively review any of the emails and that did piss off one client. I never want to frustrate my clients, and having that clear mind upon arriving home was worth it!

How to do an Email Sabbatical

I’ve told you about how this works in broad strokes, but details are far more actionable. Plus the winter holiday season is upon us. So here are the specifics on how to set up your email sabbatical whether you use Gmail or Outlook 365.

Step 1 — set up your auto-archive

In Gmail you’ll do this by setting up a filter. Go to Settings>Filters and Blocked Addresses>Create a new filter. Put an asterisk (*) in the subject field and click the “create filter” button. It’ll pop up a warning about special characters, but this is all part of the plan! Check the box for “Skip the Inbox (Archive it)”. Also, check the box for “Apply the label:” and make a label for this vacation. (e.g. I did “email-sabbatical — -new-year-2019”.) Then click the final “create filter” button.

In Outlook 365 you’ll do this by setting up a rule. Go to Settings>Mail>Rules>Add New Rule. Give your rule a name. (“Email Sabbatical” works well since you can turn the rule off when you’re back from sabbatical.) Add a condition and select “Apply to all messages.” Add an action and select “Move to” “Archive.” Add another action, select “Categorize,” and select or create a category called “Sabbatical.” Save this rule. You will then be able to toggle the rule active and inactive each time you go on sabbatical.

Step 2 — set up your auto-reply

To set up an autoresponder in Gmail, go to Settings>General>Vacation responder. Enter the dates you’ll be on Sabbatical and turn the Vacation Responder on. Use the text in step 3 for the outgoing message. Ensure you’ve left unchecked the checkboxes below the message. (E.g. This should apply to all emails not only to people in your contacts or in your organization.)

In Outlook 365 you’ll find this in Settings>Mail>Automatic Replies. Select to turn it on. Enter the dates you’ll be on Sabbatical. Use the text in step 3 for the outgoing message. Include the text in both fields: “inside your organization” and “outside your organization.”

Step 3 — craft your outgoing message

Here’s sample text to put into your autoresponder:

Subject: Your email will NOT be read

Message text:

Hello,

I am taking an email sabbatical December 24th — January 3rd and will not read the email you just sent.

During this period I will not be checking email; I will also not see or respond to emails sent during this time. If your concern is still relevant, please resend your email on 4th. Thank you for assisting me in this small way so that I can have the full “vacation” experience despite the pandemic.

If you need to adjust a scheduled appointment (or schedule a new one!) you can do so online using the “Log in” in the upper right of this link!

If you need to contact me during the sabbatical period, you can reach me by way of my best friend. (If you don’t know who that is or how to get in touch with them… well, that’s pretty much the point.❤)

Thanks for your understanding and have a great week!

Love, Maggie

PS: Thanks also to email sabbatical inventor danah boyd and adopters of this practice whom have inspired me to take this time to unplug.

Step 4 — have a fantastic holiday!

You’re already wrestling with how to celebrate the holidays given the restrictions of Covid-19. This is the perfect time to take this strategy for a test drive. During the holiday season, many folks expect people to be out of the office. And with the chaos that has been 2020 it’s even more important to be able to get that “vacation” feeling without actually traveling anywhere. I’ve come to realize that most of the “vacation” feeling comes from unplugging from work. So go give it a try — there’s no better time than now!

Originally published at https://www.maggiekarshner.com on December 16, 2020.