GETTING BACK TO WORK ONCE THE VACATION’S OVER
By Karen Leland
FOR MANY PEOPLE, the anticipation of going on vacation is matched only by the anxiety they feel as they get ready to return to work. Returning to the office after a vacation can fill even the most organized businessperson with a sense of dread. Imagine, it’s Monday morning, and you’re back at work after a week of fun in the sun. Before taking a seat at your desk, you stop at the break room for a quick cup of coffee. Your co-worker stops by and mentions how tan and relaxed you look. You sigh with satisfaction— then, five minutes later, reality hits. Countless e-mails clog your inbox and your voicemail is full.
NOT YOUR IDEA OF FUN, RIGHT?
To help make your re-entry a little smoother, try the following strategies:
TAKE A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW
Before you get caught up in the raging river of small details, begin by catching up with your co-workers. Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist, says that immediately burying your head in paperwork and moaning to anyone who comes within range about how overwhelmed you are makes you look disorganized and incapable of gaining control of your work after vacation. Trunk suggests the first thing you do is get up and take a walk around the office.
“Talk about your vacation and ask people how they are doing and what’s been going on,” she says. “This gives your colleagues a chance to discuss things they may have wanted to talk with you about, but didn’t feel comfortable hitting you with your first day back.”
KEEP YOUR CALENDAR CLEAR
David Allen, author of Ready For Anything, says businesspeople underestimate the amount of time it will take to get caught up. “You need about an hour a day, on average, for the typical professional to gather, process and organize backed-up information,” Allen says. “Think about how many days you will be away and then assign an hour for each day. If you’re gone for two weeks, it will take two days, at least, to get caught up.” Allen suggests reserving a lot of catch-up time on your calendar those first few days back.
APPLY THE 80/20 RULE
While you were away, tons of mail—snail, electronic and voice—will have piled up. Not all of these incoming communications warrant immediate action. “Most people want to come running in and start sorting through all their e-mails,” says Dr. Pamela Dodd, co-author of The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques. Instead, she suggests people look before they leap and determine what 20 percent of the items need immediate action, and what 80 percent of items can wait a couple of days.
LEVERAGE YOUR VACATION
Vacations not only give you a break from the hustle and bustle of work, they also provide an opportunity to step back and look at what’s most important in life. “Vacations give you thinking space, but that doesn’t help you if you go back to your desk and do exactly the same thing,” Trunk says. Employees need to consider how they are going to change the structure of their days and implement the new ideas. For example, if your vacation sparked a renewed interest in spending time with your spouse, you need to stop booking meetings at 4 p.m.
Doing so will ensure that most nights you can make it home for dinner with the family.
With a little bit of planning and prioritizing, you can avoid the back-from-vacation blues. It’s easy to implement smart strategies that will ensure the benefits of a vacation are felt long after the plane has touched down.
Plan Before You Go
A RECENT SURVEY BY OFFICETEAM FOUND THAT 76 PERCENT OF EXECUTIVES ATTEND TO OFFICE DUTIES SEVERAL TIMES WHILE ON VACATION. ONE REASON? POOR VACATION PREPARATION.
IN ORDER TO STAY UNPLUGGED:
Leave important project information on your desk where co-workers can easily find it.
Contact clients, co-workers and vendors with the dates you will be out and the name of someone they can contact while you’re away. Also, leave this information on your voicemail and e-mail.
Create a to-do list of items you will need to handle pronto upon returning
