8 Tips on How to have a stress-free and workless holiday

Getting out of the daily grind and going for a holiday sounds like heaven for most people. Still, not everyone end up enjoying their holiday, as several problems might occur that can pull anyone back to reality. Therefore, it is very important to try to make sure everything will be okay at the office while we are gone, and our co-workers won’t have any reason to ring us in the middle of nowhere while enjoying our well-earned massage.

No matter whether you are travelling with your family (and kids, of course) or alone, this hub will provide perfect ideas for everyone.

In the following article I’ve tried to collect all the best and most important things, tips and tricks you should carry out in order to have a trouble-free and indeed workless summer – or for that matter, any kind of – holiday.

1. Think forward – book your holiday leave in time so there won’t be any disappointment and you won’t be rejected. In this way, your company can organise and prioritise workload better and can possibly even assign your work to another co-worker – so you won’t be annoyed by phone calls from your workplace.

2. Make sure the flow of information won’t be blocked – set up an ‘Out-of-office’ reminder and copy it onto the bottom of your work-related e-mails, so the people whom you are working with will be notified in time about your upcoming leave so they can prepare for your absence. Additionally, on the last day you are in the office before leaving for your holiday set up an automated ‘Out-of-office’ e-mail on your account, and don’t forget to add the basic information needed for an uninterrupted workflow. So include who to contact with any problem that might occur while you are gone, and how can that person be reached (direct phone number is the best, or an e-mail address).

3. Keep in touch – in case you would like to get any updates on how things are going in the office, collect all the necessary e-mails or direct phone numbers of your colleagues. Or, of course, you can give your contact details to them as well, but keep in mind this might cause your phone to ring constantly. In case you decide you want to avoid this, set up some ‘rules’ – like when they are allowed to contact you, under what circumstances and in what way (phone or e-mail). On the other hand, obviously, the ideal set-up would be to completely forget about your work during the holiday.

4. Find out the costs – accepting incoming and making outgoing calls usually cost more – in some cases, considerably more – abroad, so try to find out how much will these cost you. If there’s free Wi-Fi where you will be staying, then try to limit your communication to that, but if getting online would cost you a fortune use your phone instead. All in all, optimise your expenses and try to keep them to the minimum.

5. Make sure you have all the details you might need – in case you have to log in to a special website or transfer money to someone during your holiday, triple-check whether you really remember the password and know the account details, otherwise you will face some problems.

6. Schedule your work properly – keep in mind that on the first day you start work after your holiday you won’t be able to give the performance of your life. Everyone needs at least 2-3 days to completely adjust to the good ol’ weekdays again – therefore it is not the best idea to leave important projects with tight deadlines for those days. Prioritise while and where you can.

7. Tidy up – don’t leave a mess on your desk before you leave. Getting back to work after a holiday is already a great frustration, I’m sure you don’t want to make it worse. And not finding ‘that important document’ where you left it in that mess probably won’t help you.

8. Give yourself time to re-acclimatize – it is probably not the best idea to get back from your vacation on Sunday and immediately start work on Monday, especially not after a 10+ day long holiday. Try to leave yourself at least one day between arriving back home and going to work again, allowing yourself to get used to the thought of having to work again.

While on holiday, always try to make the best of your vacation – catch up on sleep, spend quality time with the ones you love the most and make unforgettable memories. If you want, try out everything and be active, but leave yourself enough days to completely unwind and just enjoy your holiday. The more quickly you are able to turn your body into ‘vacation mode’, the more you will be able to ‘recharge’ for the next year or until the next holiday.

Keep in mind: relax, enjoy and turn your mind off! That's all!

All the dividers used in this hub are my own work (zsobig). I have used Printmaster to create them.

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© Copyright 2014, Zsofia Koszegi-Nagy (zsobig)