How To Get Back Into Your Work Routine After Vacation

By Danielle Wirsansky on January 20, 2021

There’s nothing quite as relaxing as a vacation. Vacations are usually well needed and well deserved. However, the worst part of a vacation is its end. As much as you are now refreshed and recharged, it can be very difficult to return to reality and get back into the swing of things, especially at work. Returning to work can feel like a challenge, but it is certainly doable. Read on for some strategies to help you get back into your work routine after a vacation!

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Transition Time

It is super hard to come back from vacation and dive right back into work. The best thing you can do is to give yourself breathing room upon your return from vacation and the start of work once more. What does this entail? Schedule your vacation’s end so that you have enough time to catch up on what you need to before you return to work.

Do your best not to get home after midnight when you have work the next morning. Return home at a reasonable time or schedule it so that you have the morning off and return to work in the afternoon. Give yourself enough time to be home to unwind. Despite the fact that traveling mostly entails sitting down, it is still exhausting. You want to start back at work fully refreshed, not already drained as soon as you have come back from your vacation. Be sure to get a good night’s rest.

You also need to give yourself time to unpack. You do not want to get stuck in that phase of post-vacation where you are still living out of your suitcase for weeks to come because you never gave yourself the time or opportunity to unpack. That will add to your stress and make your post-vacation high end all the quicker.

Any other errands you need to do, like picking up animals from boarding, grocery shopping, picking up medications, or more since you were on vacation, either have a solid plan for when you are doing them or give yourself enough time between your return from vacation to your return from work to get them all done. The stress of trying to haphazardly get these mundane tasks done in a rush will also make your transition between vacation and work more difficult.

If you are suffering from jet-lag, you probably do not have the luxury of taking a couple days to get your head back on track before returning to work after your vacation. But take the time to do whatever you can feel okay and get back on the right sleep schedule before work picks up again. Giving yourself transition time is an incredibly important strategy to help you ease back into the rigors of everyday life in a healthy manner.

Catch Up on Communications

The next thing you can do to help transition back into your work routine is to catch up on your communications! Do not go back into work (or into the full swing of things) without knowing all the latest information that will help you do your job.

What if one co-worker was fired? What if another got a promotion? Maybe your boss is upset because you did not complete all your work before you left on vacation. Maybe you were assigned an urgent project while you were gone with a close deadline. Maybe you have a big meeting the day you come back and things could have changed since you left for vacation.

Whatever the case may be, you want to be informed and prepared. Read your emails, check your texts, listen to your voicemails, peruse your slack messages, whatever channels you communicate through at work. Catching up on your communications will help make slipping back into your work routine as easy as ever.

Make a To-Do List

Sometimes the hardest part of returning to work after a vacation is how overwhelming it all feels. There is so much to do! Where do you even start? Cut your panic off (or avoid it entirely) by making a to-do list so you know exactly what needs to be done and you can start tackling your workload more manageably. You can include your deadline and prioritize your tasks. It will help you to wade through the giant pile of work awaiting you and keep you calm and focused on your work.

Photo from Pexels

Try these strategies out when coming back from a vacation so that you can transition back into your work routine as smoothly as possible. You want to ride that post-vacation high as long as you can—and help stretch out the time between the vacation you just ended and the next vacation you get to take (whenever that may be!)

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