Aug 3, 2020
Getting ready to leave for a vacation, and coming back to work after vacation are usually very stressful. Sometimes you feel like you need a vacation after your vacation just to catch up. In this episode, we cover some tips for how to productively manage the time leading up to your vacation and the day you return from vacation.
The process starts 2 weeks before your schedule vacation:
- Add an out of office notification to your signature. This is going to alert people to the fact that you are going to be out. It will nudge them to take action on something that they might need before you leave.
- Review your calendar for the time you are away. Make a list of any deliverables that you need to prepare during you r absence
- Block time on your calendar over the next 2 weeks to prepare everything on your list. For example, if you have a meeting where you are responsible for preparing a presenting a slide, you would block time on your calendar to both prepare the slide and make arrangements for someone else to present the slide at the meeting.
- Block an Inservice Day, or half day for the day before you leave and the day your return. An inservice day is when you block your calendar as if you are out of the office, but you are actually working. It gives you the time and space you need to catch up because people think you are still out.
- If you have the type of job where someone will be covering for you while you are out of office, block time on the calendar for a meeting with them to manage the transition. You should block time for before you leave and when you return.
One week before you leave, you will start to:
- Say no to any new request that comes your way – don’t take on more work when you know you have a hard stop in advance of your vacation.
- Be extra diligent about your priorities. You are going to go into hyper-vigilant mode. If it isn’t absolutely necessary, it can wait.
Some other tips:
- Consider whether you should remove yourself from email distribution lists. This varies depending on your scenario, but if you are part of a high volume distro, removing yourself will keep your inbox from filling up with notifications during your vacation.
- Get yourself into the vacation mindset. It is important that you take time away from work in order to rejuvenate, renew, and refresh. Take your vacation. Don’t work. Your company will be able to operate without you for the time that you are gone.