Returning From Vacation Doesn’t Have to Ruin the Good Time You Just Had
Welcome back! Hopefully, your time away was a real break relaxing, energizing, or just a chance to reset. If you planned ahead before stepping away, you likely set yourself up well to enjoy it fully. Now, it is time to get back into the swing of things in your work environment. Regardless of how well you planned, the strength of your team in handling matters in your absence, and the time you took to check in while away, there is always some amount of catching up that needs to occur when you return. Here are some ways to get back into the swing of things faster and keep all of that positive energy you have from your relaxing vacation.
Plan time to review
Either the day before you return to work or the first couple of hours on the day you return to work, ensure you have time blocked to review the items that came up while you were away. Giving yourself time to ease back in helps you catch up on what’s happened. It also puts you in a better position to make informed decisions instead of reacting while still trying to catch up.
Prioritize
There will likely be many different things to catch up on as you return; you will need a starting point and a list of priorities to begin tackling. Depending on your situation you may want to meet first with your team or walk your store to see what has changed and if there are any current issues. In other instances, reviewing and catching up on email may be the best place to start.
You can get an idea of the communication that transpired while you were away and identify any open items that are waiting on input from you. As you are reviewing, you can widen your priority list, defining where you’ll need to spend your time as you are ramping back up.
Make a list of questions
As you are reviewing the information from your time away, make notes on areas that you want more information about. It can be easy to miss context or information when you only have a portion of the story in an email. List your questions someplace you can follow up on when you complete your review session. Keeping a note pad handy while reviewing email, written documentation, listening to voicemail, or walking your location can be helpful to stay focused on the information instead of trying to find the answers piece by piece.
Jump back in
Once you have reviewed the necessary items from when you were away, prioritized your follow up activities, and made your list of questions to check on, it is time to get back into your routine. I say routine, but that does not need to be the same routine you had when you left. Coming back from a vacation can be an opportunity to make changes to previous habits and activities. Being away opens the door to reset habits and explore new routines that may work better now.
Everyone should be able to look forward to taking their vacations and not dread the idea of going back to work when your holiday is over. I would recommend having your next vacation scheduled by the time you come back from the one you just took. That gives you a well defined period between the two breaks to set the goals you want to accomplish. It also gives you something to look forward to and work towards. In fact, studies show that looking forward to the vacation is the best part. Now that you have successfully returned from your current vacation you can begin to get excited about your next one.
How do you get back into the swing of things when you return from your vacations?
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