Make your own retreat

8 strategies for getting away and getting things done

Creativity takes space and time. Sometimes those can feel hard to come by in a life where the dog is barking, you’re waiting for a contractor to arrive between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and you’ve got a camp pick-up at 4 p.m. I know I have occasionally fantasized about running off to somewhere (Walden Pond? Carl Jung’s tower? The hotel where J.K. Rowling finished Harry Potter?) for extended periods of solitude.

That is unlikely to happen. However, I have taken several shorter retreats, which have been great for helping me ponder ideas and get work done. If that sounds intriguing, read on for my suggestions of how to create and structure a mini-retreat that fits into a busy life.

Have a purpose. If you take a retreat just to “think deep thoughts” you might not have as many deep thoughts as you’d hoped, or at least not enough to justify the hassle. I have taken four writing retreats when I was very close to finishing a few of my books and I wanted time to read and edit the whole manuscript without being pulled away. In early 2014 I spent a few days editing The Cortlandt Boys. In the summer of 2017 I focused on Off the Clock. In fall of 2021 I tackled Tranquility by Tuesday and in the summer of 2023 I worked on a novel manuscript I’m calling The Norwegian Secret to Enjoying Winter. You could take a retreat to plan 2025 (that’s why I’m doing Best Laid Plans Live in November!) or a retreat to focus on a very specific question (what new offering should my small business launch next year?). You could take a retreat just to relax. But do make sure to have an outcome in mind, because that vastly increases the chances that you achieve that outcome.