Summer is either the best or the worst time for getting anything done in the business world, depending on whether you talk with a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty type.

Everyone you speak with has a vacation planned.  A week on the Cape or one of the Islands.  A summer home in New Hampshire or Maine.  A yearly family vacation at their favorite spot in Vermont (a  little plug there for my friends at Tyler Place.)  Or maybe something more exotic.

Could be the extended weekend model.  Cluster all your days off around various weekends, Mondays and Fridays, and suddenly you have a season of mini-vacations.  Four days off, three working.  If you are lucky you can keep it going all summer.

If you are in business development, invariably, one of the decision-makers is out just when you are inches away from closing the deal.  Yes, yes.  Fishing.  Clear mountain streams. No cell coverage.  You understand.

But, if you are trying to get something done which requires no interaction with others, say, writing a white paper, suddenly that stretch of quiet time starts to look pretty good.  The phone isn’t going to ring and the email isn’t coming in at such a furious pace.  You can get coding done.  Or write that business plan.

Planning events is another interesting area.  Yes, that week does look tough for x% of people.  But, there is also little in the way of competition for their time and attention.  You might get your best turnout.

Do you run that email campaign now or wait for the fall?  (You may have watched your website traffic dive like you lost your best referral link but time-on-site has risen dramatically.)

Without time off to rest and recharge, we all end up a little wacky and bleary-eyed.  What do you think?  Summertime — business boon or bane? (No teachers…we don’t want to hear it, thank you very much.)