Just because you can work doesn’t mean you should

I have a bad cold and sore throat. For the benefit of myself and others, I stayed home from work the last two days. This was obviously not planned.
Naturally, I was concerned about work piling up. Since I am on the “getting better” side, I decided to get some work done from home. I had four meetings scheduled, all internal, so I planned to go ahead and participate.
The first was a team meeting with my RIA employees. It lasted about half an hour and I honestly can’t remember anything that was said. Next came the big powwow with the TRX people. This was conducted through GoToMeeting because we have participants in four different locations in three different states. I listened. But when it was my turn, I couldn’t think of anything to say.
(See also: Sheryl’s experiment: Can an adviser work remotely for a month?)
Meeting No.3 was a demonstration of our new internal project management software. From what I could tell between dozing off, it was a great demo. I even remember one important point: how to log in! The final meeting was with my marketing team. They were succinct and just wanted my blessings on their plans. That was easy.
As far as e-mails, I mostly forwarded them to others to answer. I’ve only gotten one phone call to verify a bank request made by my chief financial officer. Oh, and I also looked at responses from a targeted survey sent to a handful of clients. I e-mailed my client service manager to communicate my extreme concern when I saw that one client had marked “dissatisfied” for our customer service. When she responded that the client has actually indicated “delighted,” I realized that this might not be an appropriate time for me to work.
It’s often hard to unplug, whether you’re sick or on vacation, or just during non-working hours. For me, it’s extra difficult because I run two businesses and have been told I’m a control freak (what?) and a workaholic (I deny it). It’s an ongoing struggle to try to incorporate balance. For today, I learned a lesson: Just because you can (or think you can), doesn’t mean you should.
Sheryl Rowling is chief executive of Total Rebalance Expert and principal at Rowling & Associates. She considers herself a non-techie user of technology.