Tips on How to get back to work after a holiday

Holidays are usually great and people are much happier, relaxed and healthier after their well-deserved break. The problem starts when they realise that the vacation and summer is over and they have to start their daily routine again on the following Monday.

Anyone can tell: getting back to work after a long and relaxing holiday can be terrible at times. There are barely any people who can’t wait to get back to the same, daily grind after the holiday. Even if we won’t admit, most of us have many difficulties to reacclimatize – not just for work, but even for a simple weekend, too.

In the following article I’ve tried to collect all the advices I could think of to help you tune in for the busy weekdays again.

• Manage your time. First of all, try not to arrive back from the holiday the day before you have to start to work again. Finish your holiday at least 2 days before that, so you won’t be cranky on Monday and you can start your daily routine, reacclimatize and tune in mentally for work again during the last 2 days. It can also be a good idea to get back to work on Wednesday or Thursday, so you only have to work for 2 or 3 days on your first week.
• Don’t try to do everything at once. If you have one or several bigger tasks/projects to do at the same time, then try to do smaller ‘pieces’ of each, one after the other (without getting confused of course). This helps you to fully keep yourself concentrated on the task, so you surely won’t get distracted by your holiday memories.
• Prioritise your tasks and organise yourself. After you divided the work you have to finish try to prioritise between the tasks and decide which ones are the most important, so you can start with those. If the task is urgent, then keep little breaks between the parts every hour – drink a tea, wash your face or walk for a few minutes on the fresh air and with this you will be ‘strong’ enough to finish what you need.
• Manage your e-mails. Try to read the e-mails you got during your holiday in smaller amounts. Don’t try to read all at once within a few minutes/hours, as this will make you tired in no time. Read only a few every hour – this will help you stay awake and concentrated; meanwhile you will still read them fast enough to finish with all by the end of the first 1-2 days.

• Make notes. If you tend to get distracted by memories about the holiday, then make notes to yourself. Write down the most important things you have to finish by the end of the day, or that you have to continue the next day. If you are still languorous on Friday, make notes to self for Monday, too.
• Bring a memory to work. If you want to bring a nice, little memory from your holiday to your workplace anyway – just do it. Although it may easily get you distracted from your tasks, it can help you as well. Just keep a balance and realize when you daydream about your holiday way too much. Allow yourself a few minutes every hour to relax and think about the great memories – this will probably be enough to keep concentrated during the rest of each hour. Additionally, you don’t have to ‘forget’ about your holiday back at home either: if you ate something extraordinary during the holiday, gather your family and eat out in a restaurant that offers the same or similar foods you had there. This will provide you with new memories and something to wait for.
• Start to think about your next holiday. You don’t necessarily have to start to organize your next summer holiday – rather think about your next day off, bank holidays or the upcoming autumn/Christmas season. This will keep you motivated and you will have something to think about and wait for.
• Never count on getting fully back to work on the first day. As I said, try to keep little breaks every hour and don’t get mad or demotivated if you are unable to fully concentrate on your work by the end of the day – like you did before you left. Give yourself 2 or 3 days and everything shall be back in order.

If you still feel depressed and ‘holiday-sick’ at your workplace after 1 or 2 weeks, the problem might not only be the fact that summer is behind you.

Sadly, this can be a sign that you better start looking for a new workplace. Your body knows better what you really require – if you can’t get back to work no matter what you try, then try to think over your opportunities in your job, that is ahead you and you can achieve. If you can’t find anything that motivates you, that might be the real problem behind your feelings. Time to change!

Additionally, you also have to look out and be careful, as a long-lasting depression can cause you serious health problems later – so you better visit your doctor if you see these signs on yourself:

• Lost appetite or you can’t stop eating.
• Feeling very down, crying at times.
• Sudden aggression, short-temperedness.
• Overall tiredness for days.
• You can’t sleep or you want to sleep all the time.
• Lack of concentration.
• Feeling hopeless and useless.
• Feeling your life worth nothing now.

Keep in mind that although some of these signs can be ‘normal’ at times as everyone has hard days in their life – the more symptoms you see, the more serious your problem can be. So pay attention to yourself!

All in all, always try to look at the bright side of life and try to ‘turn off’ your mind at work in each hour for a few minutes. Think about the best moments of your holiday and what is still ahead of you – I bet you still have to see loads of things in your life!

Now live for those moments :). Good luck!

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© Copyright 2012-2014, Zsofia Koszegi-Nagy (zsobig)