Business owners and real estate investors spend a lot of time thinking about return on investment. But there’s one investment that rarely makes it onto a spreadsheet: getting away.
A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Travel Rx: Getting Away Can Help You Mentally, Research Shows,” highlighted a growing body of research suggesting that travel and vacations can provide meaningful psychological benefits.
That may not sound particularly revolutionary. Most of us already know that sitting on a beach beats sitting in traffic on the 5.
But for business owners, executives and commercial property investors, there’s a more important lesson here: stepping away from the business occasionally may actually make you better at running it.
Your Brain Needs Some Vacancy, Too
Commercial real estate people don’t normally celebrate vacancy. But when it comes to your calendar, a little vacancy might be exactly what you need.
Research increasingly supports the value of vacations and time away from work. A 2025 meta-analysis examining 32 studies found that vacations had a substantial positive effect on employee well-being. Other research has associated vacations with improvements in stress, recovery and psychological well-being.
Travel also does something particularly valuable for people who spend their days solving problems: it changes the environment in which your brain is operating.
New surroundings interrupt familiar routines. You encounter different people, places, foods and experiences. Instead of looking at the same four walls while thinking about the same four problems, your brain suddenly has something new to process.
That psychological distance can help provide something every business owner could use more of; perspective.
When You’re Always “On,” Everything Starts Looking Urgent
Owning a company or commercial property has an interesting side effect: there is almost always something you could be doing.
There’s another lease to review.
Another tenant issue.
Another building improvement.
Another acquisition to analyze.
Another email that apparently cannot survive until tomorrow morning.
The problem is that when everything receives your attention, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine what actually deserves it.
Getting away interrupts that cycle.
Research and clinical observations regarding travel suggest that breaking from familiar surroundings can help people relax, experience new perspectives and create mental distance from everyday responsibilities.
For a business owner, that distance can be remarkably useful.
The solution to a problem you’ve been wrestling with for three weeks may suddenly become obvious while you’re 500 miles away from the office.
You may realize a process is unnecessarily complicated.
You may decide an investment you’ve been chasing isn’t nearly as attractive as you thought.
Or you may finally have enough quiet to think about where you want your company, or your investment portfolio, to be five years from now instead of five days from now.
A Vacation Is Also a Stress Test for Your Business
There is another benefit to getting away that doesn’t get enough attention.
Leaving tests your organization.
If you cannot disappear for a week without the business grinding to a halt, that’s valuable information.
Maybe decisions are too centralized.
Maybe employees need more authority.
Maybe systems haven’t been documented.
Maybe every customer relationship runs through one person.
Or maybe you’re simply answering questions your team is perfectly capable of answering themselves.
A business that requires the owner to personally solve every problem isn’t necessarily efficient. It may simply be dependent.
The same applies to commercial real estate investments.
Good properties should have systems around them: professional management, reliable vendors, appropriate insurance, organized accounting, properly structured leases and experienced advisors.
The objective isn’t to eliminate every problem.
It’s to build an operation where every problem doesn’t require you.
Give Your Team Permission to Get Away, Too
And while you’re booking your own time away, make sure your team gets theirs, too. Vacation shouldn’t be something employees feel guilty about taking, or something they spend answering emails from a hotel room. Time away gives people an opportunity to recharge, reset and return with renewed energy and perspective. For business owners, there is a practical benefit as well: well-rested employees tend to be more engaged, focused and productive than employees who are perpetually running on empty. Encouraging people to actually use their vacation time can also strengthen morale and reinforce that you trust your team to manage responsibilities without everyone being constantly available.
There’s another benefit that business owners sometimes overlook: when one employee takes time off, other people have to step up. Responsibilities get shared, employees learn new functions, weaknesses in processes become visible and you discover whether important knowledge is concentrated with one person. In that sense, vacations can actually make an organization stronger. A company where both the owner and employees can occasionally unplug without everything falling apart is usually a company with good systems, good communication and a capable team.
So when someone on your team says, “I’m taking next week off,” resist the temptation to think about everything that needs to get done while they’re gone.
Tell them to have a great trip.
And mean it.
Don’t Take the Office With You
Of course, physically leaving town isn’t particularly helpful if you bring your entire office along in your pocket.
Checking email before breakfast.
Taking a “quick” call from the pool.
Reviewing a lease from the golf cart.
Sending your property manager a text because you suddenly remembered the parking lot light you’ve been meaning to ask about.
Congratulations. You’ve successfully relocated your office.
For time away to actually work, some degree of detachment matters. Guidance for business leaders taking vacations commonly emphasizes communicating expectations in advance, establishing a trusted point person and planning project timelines around the absence.
In other words: delegate before you disappear.
Your team knows who is responsible for what. Important clients know you’ll be unavailable. Genuine emergencies have a clear escalation path.
Then leave.
The Best Decisions Aren’t Always Made Behind a Desk
Commercial real estate teaches patience.
Properties are long-term investments. Markets move in cycles. Leases span years. Improvements made today may create value for decades.
Business ownership isn’t much different.
Yet it’s remarkably easy to spend 100% of our time reacting to what is immediately in front of us.
Sometimes the best way to see the bigger picture is simply to get farther away from it.
So take the trip.
Go somewhere you’ve never been. Spend a week at the beach. Head to the mountains. Visit another country. Or just take a long weekend somewhere your cell phone doesn’t get particularly good reception.
Your building will probably still be there when you return.
Your business will probably survive.
And that supposedly urgent email?
There’s an excellent chance it will survive too.
At Johnston Pacific Commercial Real Estate, we’ve spent more than three decades helping South Orange County business owners and commercial property investors think long term, about their properties, their investments and the decisions that create lasting value.
Sometimes creating value means knowing when to make a move.
And sometimes it means knowing when to get away.
