About 13 years ago, my two partners and I were running our custom software company.. Like all five-person businesses, we had our fair share of fires, challenges, deadlines, and stress. We had decided that we were going to do our planning session offsite, away from the business on a Friday and Saturday.

When the day came to leave the business on Friday and entrust our employees to hold down the fort, I felt like we couldn't possibly leave. My partners convinced me to leave and we all committed to shut off our phones and email so we could be fully present to the planning process. I remember stressing about different customer issues, cash concerns and other matters. But we stayed focused, for the most part, and did our planning work. We came away from that two-day annual planning with clarity for the future and confidence that we were on the right path.