The Most Productive Thing You Can Do on Holiday? Decide What to Stop Doing.

We have become very good at adding things to our lives.

Another goal.

Another project.

Another meeting.

Another responsibility.

Another book.

Another productivity system.

Even our holidays can become strangely productive.

Visit this place.

See that museum.

Go to that restaurant.

Take 200 photographs.

Answer a few emails.

Check LinkedIn.

Just quickly.

And then we return to work and ask ourselves why we are exhausted again.

Perhaps this summer we should try something different.

Instead of asking:

“What do I want to achieve when I get back?”

Ask:

“What am I ready to stop doing?”

This is a question I increasingly encourage leaders to explore.

Because leadership growth isn’t always about acquiring another skill.

Sometimes it’s about releasing a behaviour that has outlived its usefulness.

Perhaps you need to stop being the person who approves everything.

Perhaps you need to stop attending meetings simply because you’ve always attended them.

Perhaps you need to stop rescuing people from uncomfortable situations.

Perhaps you need to stop saying yes because you’re afraid of disappointing someone.

Perhaps you need to stop carrying responsibility that belongs to somebody else.

Or perhaps you simply need to stop treating every request as a priority.

The difficulty is that many of these behaviours have probably helped you succeed.

That’s why they’re so difficult to let go of.

Your willingness to work hard may have built your career.

Your responsiveness may have earned trust.

Your perfectionism may have helped you produce excellent work.

Your availability may have made you the person everyone could rely on.

But what helped you reach one level isn’t necessarily what will help you reach the next.

At some point, leadership becomes less about how much you can personally carry and more about what you are willing to release.

That’s a very different definition of high performance.

It isn’t doing more things.

It’s directing your attention towards the things that matter most.

So while you’re away, give yourself permission to think.

Not strategically.

Not operationally.

Just honestly.

• What am I doing that no longer needs to be done?

• What am I holding onto because I’m afraid to let go?

• Where am I creating dependency rather than capability?

• What would happen if I trusted someone else with this?

And perhaps the most powerful question of all:

• If I had to remove 20% of my responsibilities tomorrow, what would I choose?

Don’t rush to answer.

Let the question sit with you.

Because sometimes clarity doesn’t arrive when we work harder to find it.

It arrives when we finally create enough space to hear ourselves think.

And that may be the real opportunity of a holiday.

Not simply to rest from work.

But to return with a clearer understanding of what is actually worth working for.

To your success,
Isabel

Which inisght has impacted you the most? Drop it in the comments!

Isabel Valle is an award-winning Global Leadership Strategist and ICF Master Coach, dedicated to helping executives and business leaders achieve sustainable success. Through her acclaimed programs like Leadership Reimagined and Lead365, Isabel equips leaders with the tools to foster innovation, build high-performing teams, and thrive in a fast-evolving world.  A sought-after speaker and author, Isabel blends data-driven insights with a human-centered approach to deliver transformative results. Learn more at www.isabelvalle.com.