Lauren RileyWe all know the feeling – you’ve spent a week or two on a sun-drenched resort, eating and drinking to your heart’s content, but then the time comes when you have to return to work and face reality.
Getting back into the swing of things after time off is never easy, but there are a few ways you can adjust back into day-to-day life and make the transition smooth and painless!
1) Give Yourself An Extra Day
While most people want to use every last minute of their annual leave on their actual holiday, it’s a good idea to give yourself a day or so at home after your trip to get your head back in the game.
Rather than coming home at Sunday night and going straight to work on Monday morning, consider taking an extra day’s holiday or getting a morning flight home if you can so there’s no big rush once you get home.
Giving yourself time to unpack, unwind and recover from any jet leg will ensure that you return to work fresh and prepared.
2) Plan Your Return
Before we go on holiday, most of us will make sure that everything is organised and sorted for when we leave – tasks completed, handovers sent and out-of-offices turned on – but what about when we get back?
Make sure you keep your first day back free to catch up on everything you’ve missed – avoid booking any meetings for that day as this will disrupt your transition and leave you a bit all over the place in terms of getting back on top of things.
Also, make sure you haven’t left any urgent tasks to do for when you get back. There’s nothing worse than coming back from holiday knowing you need to put together a presentation or complete an extensive report.
3) Make A List
When you’ve been away from the office for a couple of weeks, it can be easy to forget some of your regular tasks.
If this is the case, when you get back, make a to-do list of tasks that need completing that week and arrange them in order of priority.
This will help you to manage your work load and will make it seem more manageable – as well as motivating you when you tick one off the list.
4) Take Regular Breaks
Chances are, if you’ve been away on holiday, you won’t have spent a long time looking at a computer screen, so it’s important to allow your eyes to adjust back to focusing on a screen for an extended period of time.
Give yourself regular breaks away from your screen, as you don’t want to over-strain your eyes on your first week back and cause damage.
Bathroom breaks, making tea or coffees or talking to colleagues face-to-face rather via email are all good ways to break up the day.
5) Book Another Holiday
When you come back from having time off, you’ll undoubtedly be suffering from some post-holiday blues, but it’s important to keep your moral high.
One of the ways you can do this is to book another holiday.
Even if it’s just a short city break, or a big holiday a year from now, having something to look forward to will keep you motivated and happy!
So there we go, some tips on returning to work after a nice, relaxing break!
Do you agree with these tips or have any of your own? Let me know in the comments below!
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