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August, 20, 2020 | Guest post by: Geraldine Mills
Going back to work mode after a rewarding vacation is more challenging than we think. After all, it's already challenging to get back to work after a weekend. What more after several days of fun and relaxation? Luckily, there are ways you can make that transition easier for you if you prepare beforehand. On that note, here are eight essential things that you should do before getting back to work.
When it's your first day back from work, it can be hard to get the brain fog away after spending several days relaxing. If you go back to your office and try and scramble for work to do, it will be harder for you to focus. You won't be able to understand what you're supposed to do and might end up taking longer than you should get started.
The best way to settle down and focus on crucial work tasks is to write down what you do need to finish in the workday. When you're making your action plan, try and give yourself a bit of leeway in the number of crucial tasks to finish in a day.
Pressuring yourself immediately after your vacation isn't the best way to transition out of your vacation mode and back to work.
Once you're back to work, you may have a ton of emails that you left unread and unaddressed for a while from clients and coworkers alike.
An out-of-office responder is a useful tool that helps notify everyone that you're unavailable to respond to their emails.
But before you even get back to the office, it might be a good idea to do a quick run-through of your emails. You can start turning off your out-of-office responder and then reply to the emails you received while you were gone.
On your average workday, you might start the day stopping by a coffee shop before heading into the office. You may also have the habit of checking up on a few of your coworkers right before lunch hours.
These few habits make up your regular workday routine. But when you leave for a vacation, it can be difficult to feel like you can go back to that groove you had going.
Our brains can be a tricky thing. Yet, all you need to do is follow your usual routine. Soon, you'll find that your body and mind are adapting well to returning to work after a vacation. That's because it recognized the workday routine you usually do.
When you've been on your vacation, you might forget the events or specific plans you had before your holiday. Thus, it's good to go back and look at your work calendar and see which upcoming events you should be worrying about the most.
You might also have a meeting the day you come back, so reviewing your schedule is crucial.
If you do find that you have a meeting, it might help if you go back a little earlier than planned to prepare for that meeting. You don't need to come back to the office right when you plan on coming back soon. You need to give a buffer between the day you come back and the day after your vacation.
As mentioned before, an out-of-office responder is quite useful for when you're out of the office. Once you turn it off, you might want to deal with your emails for an extra day before starting work.
You don't have to respond to the emails yet if you don't want to until you're in your office. But you can send reminders to every one of your availability on your next workday.
Instead of direct responses, you can organize your emails in a way to know which ones are a priority. When you reopen your email back in the office, you know what you should deal with first.
Before you start settling down into your work, you should begin your workday to remove unnecessary distractions. For example, you should keep away your phone, maybe in a drawer or your bag a little away from you.
You want to remove unnecessary distractions so that you won't get out of the work rhythm once you manage to get it.
Your coworkers will be interested in how your vacation went anyway. So use this opportunity to understand what you missed while you were away. For example, which projects need your attention the most or if there's work that you left with someone else while you were away and how the results were.
The preparation that you need when you're getting back to work from a vacation doesn't only start after the holiday.
You can also do a bit of prep work for your eventual return to work even before you go on your vacation. In particular, you can prepare to come back from a great holiday on your last day of work before vacation.
We always advise our clients at Maid Sailors Commercial Cleaning Service New York to clean their workspace before leaving for a vacation.
It can be challenging to try and think of your workstation when shifting towards a vacation and relaxation mindset. Yet, coming back to a clear office desk will get you into a productive mindset right when you start your first workday again.
By doing the eight tasks listed above before you return to work, you won't have as difficult a time adapting back to your typical workday. Next time you have a vacation upcoming, try and apply these tasks and do them so that you can have a seamless transition.
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We are Jacob and Taylor. Travel is our passion and we love sharing our experiences here at The Travelling Souk. Our hope is that you would be inspired by this little blog to try something new, embrace an adventure, and live life to the fullest.