Pants isn’t it? Two weeks of sun, sand, snow, or whatever your your vice maybe, and suddenly it’s Sunday night with the alarm clock is set for 6am. Going back to work after a vacation is not easy or nice – but how do you minimise that feeling of dread the night before, and the feeling of panic the next morning when you reach your desk? Here are a few things I have tried recently:
Get up to speed
Plenty of people will tell you that you shouldn’t think of work the on your last few days of holiday, but if it is already in your head, then spending your time trying not to think about work is just as bad. Set yourself aside 1 hour specifically to go through your work to do lists, refresh yourself with the details of any projects you are working on and draw-up a Plan Of Action for day 1…
Have a Plan Of Action
When you get to your desk on Monday morning after a break, do you think you are likely to find:
a) A serene environment, with you mail in one pile ordered by priority, no urgent work as your colleagues have done it in your absence, and e-mail inbox as empty as you left it; or
b) Blind panic as you try and catch-up on two weeks of backlog and the world continues to generate more work.
Okay, maybe I exaggerate to make a point, but in all likelihood the scenario is going to be nearer b) than a). As such, it is more important than ever to head into the office with a good idea of what you are planning to get done, and in what order. Not only will it make the day a little easier, you’ll probably sleep better knowing you have some idea of what tomorrow brings.
Book Some Time Off
Not another holiday – well, maybe you could do that as well, but book yourself as ‘busy’ for the first morning back. Even better, if you can lock yourself away in a meeting room for this time, you’ll get the chance to get to where you need to be without being interrupted every five minutes by people asking how the break was or asking for your time.
Get in Early
I am a big fan of this everyday never mind just when you come back from holiday, but if you can get into the office an hour-or-so before your colleagues then you have a good run at the catch-up game before the distractions start.
Be Proactive in Catching-up
It is very easy to be insular in the way you get back up to speed on your first day back – keep your head down and sieve through mountains of e-mails to see how your two big projects have been getting along in your absence. In fact, if there is anything that needs to be done on the project, why not wait until someone comes and tells you it needs doing and put the project to the back of your mind in the meantime.
This is a dangerous approach to take – while you may be consciously putting your head in the sand, sub-consciously you’ll be worrying something big has happened, or that there is some work people are expecting you to do that hasn’t got to you yet even and the clock is ticking. Book a 30 minute catch-up face-to-face with each project supervisor the day you get back – not only is this quicker and more effective than trying to piece together what is going on through a number of e-mails, but it shows enthusiasm and professionalism to the supervisor.
Take-on Those E-mails?
Why the question mark? We live in world where e-mail is both a vital link and ball-and-chain. There are a number of things you can do to minimise the black-hole that is wading through two weeks worth of e-mail, but non are perfect. Here are a few:
- Set aside a couple of hours on your last day of holiday to clear, or break the back of clearing, the built-up e-mails. Yes, you are working on a holiday but the quid pro qou is that you make your following day a bit easier, reduce your stress, and you can do it watching television!
- If you can, plan in advance before you go away. Make sure your out-of-office notification is on so that people won’t continuously send you e-mails thinking you are reading them. Set up filters so that e-mails are directed into different folders – you don’t care about e-mails telling you the sandwich van has arrived this week so direct them to trash. Speak to people you work with and tell them you’ll catch-up face-to-face when you get back so don’t copy you into anything whilst you are away.
- Have a strategy for getting through the pile. You know that anything by Bob is viral humour so can go straight into the trash. You are catching up with Wendy at 11am so drag hers to a ‘review later’ file – you’ll pick up anything urgent at the meeting. Project Runway is moving fast so you’d better read those e-mails first.
- The worst option, and my personal preference (?!) is to set-aside 10 or 20 minutes a day during your holiday to quickly flick through what has come in during the last 24 hours. Yes it means you are thinking about work a lot. Yes your wife is not pleased with you. But, I am a worrier, and can enjoy my break better knowing that there is nothing urgent, and that I have asked people not to send me anything unless it is.
Good luck and welcome back!
