For example, while my quarterly vacations may not be possible for someone who only gets two to three weeks of vacation a year, I'd strongly recommend that they take advantage of "spend time away" at least once a year. In addition, many people I know that work 9 to 5 get to "go dark" every weekend if they want.

I don't think it's the quantity of time off that matters – it's the quality. I regularly work 60+ hours per week and travel a ton, so I don't live a life of leisure. But I've learned how important it is to have intense periods of time off.

I think in a lot of ways not taking vacation (or claiming to not be able to) is sort of an ego thing. Especially in people with lives full of blog reading/writing, twittering, facebook-checking, emailing, and overall hyper-connectedness, when you really filter down to the absolutely essential stuff that must be covered, almost everyone who has a good team/partner/etc can take a real vacation as long as they do a good job of planning and delegating. In December I took my first long vacation in a few years and not only was it great, I came back incredibly re-energized and productive. Here are some thoughts on being disconnected for three weeks: http://www.emaildashboard.com/2008/01/three-weeks...