1. Choose your return date with care.
Many experienced travelers like to get home on a Friday or Saturday,
allowing them selves the weekend to reacclimatize. If you give yourself
a few days to get your personal life in order, then whatever awaits you
at the office might not seem so overwhelming. Similarly, consider
returning toward the end of the week and slipping into work for a day
or two to get your feet wet. Enjoy a weekend at home and then really
plunge in on Monday.
2. Set up voice and email notifications.
Let people know that you’re away and will not be checking email or voicemail
until a specific date. In your absence, provide someone else they can
contact. You might give your return date as a day later than it really
is in order to buy yourself a day to get organized upon returning.
3. Tidy up.
Clean your desk before you leave town. We all know that it’s so much nicer to return to a clean house, so why not a clean desk, too?
4. Be in the moment.
While you’re on vacation, try to put work out of your mind. The more
quickly you’re able to sink into vacation mode—something that takes
many people a few days to do—the more you’ll gain from your time away.
If you’re traveling with family or friends, they’ll appreciate not
hearing about work, too!
5.Get in—or out—of touch.
Decide in advance whether you’ll have any contact with the office while
you’re away. If you tell people that you’re cutting all ties for a
week, then there will be no expectations of you. On the other hand, if
you say you’ll call in, be sure to follow through.
6. Decide whether or not you’ll check email.
It’s pretty hard to find a place where you can avoid email at this
point in time. Unless you’re going backpacking for a week, sans laptop,
the onus is really on you. Will you check email or not? Be honest with
yourself about your relationship to email. Just as some people can’t
drink only one drink, others can’t look at only one email. If you’re
the type who will get sucked into an hour’s or more worth of work time
and stress, then leave your laptop at home and ignore Internet cafes.
However, if you can open email and perform light triage with some
well-timed messages, then go for it. Chances are you’ll slide back into
work feeling a tad more on top of things.
7. Check your attitude before you return.
That first day back can be like a dip in a cold pool. Make a real
effort to be positive about returning to work. Choose one or two things
to look forward to, be it a coworker you’ve missed or an interesting
project.
8. Focus, focus, focus.
Give yourself a day, at least, to carefully go through the emails,
phone messages, and paperwork that arrived in your absence. Don’t think
you’ll zoom through it in an hour and then be back to where you were
before vacation. If you get sloppy at this point, you’ll regret it in a
few days. Breathe deeply and settle in.
9. Look ahead.
Still feeling blue or overwhelmed about being back? Get out a calendar
and check your favorite travel sites and start dreaming of your next
adventure!
