How to get back to work after the holidays?

 How to get back to work after the holidays?

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I need vacation after vacation. Sound familiar? The holiday season is coming to an end and you may have enjoyed your vacation well. You are still waiting to get back to work after the holidays and adjust to everyday life again. Holidays spent on rest from work not only allow you to recharge your batteries, but are also one of the protective factors against excessive overload, which can lead to burnout.

After Holidays

A common phenomenon is the intensification of positive emotions during the holidays and their decrease after the holidays. In four popular tourist cities in China, vacationers were asked to complete questionnaires measuring their level of emotions and well-being (Yu, SMale, Xiao, 2021) during their stay, and 4 and 8 weeks after the vacation. During the holidays, positive emotions prevailed among the respondents, which weakened within two months after the holidays. The biggest drop was recorded during the first 4 weeks. At this time, the difficult emotions experienced by recent tourists have also intensified. Their feeling of well-being associated with the feeling of pleasure (called hedonistic) was also lowered.

How to take care of yourself after the holidays?

The first step is to prepare for the holidays. You may be familiar with the phrase “holiday tax,” which is paid by spending extra time at work before and after vacation to make up for chores. Paying taxes is not the most pleasant activity. To minimize our costs, let's start by planning the vacation itself. It is worth choosing a quieter time at work. Thanks to this, you will avoid worrying about tasks piling up on your desk. Let your colleagues and clients prepare for your absence by informing them of the planned vacation several weeks in advance. The next step is to do urgent tasks that can't wait two weeks and that other people won't be able to help you with. Also plan the time necessary to delegate tasks to the colleagues who will replace you. Effective delegation of tasks requires preparation. This way you reduce the risk of phone calls with questions from work during your rest. Also set up an automatic email response for the duration of your vacation, letting you know when you'll be back and who to contact in case of an emergency.

Allow yourself to disconnect from work. Defining the boundary between private life and work is important, especially now, when for many people, home has become an office. If you're not going away or spending a significant portion of your vacation at home, be sure to rearrange your space so that work-related items don't remind you of it.

The growing phenomenon of remote working is something called zoom fatigue - a kind of tiredness or even exhaustion after meetings using instant messengers for video calls. Take a break from the online world. Professor Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University has identified the causes of increased fatigue after online meetings. One of them takes a long, close look at the screen, which is too intense an experience for us. Therefore, during your vacation, let yourself rest from computer and telephone use. If possible, meet your loved ones in person. The online environment leads to a decrease in the amount of traffic consumed. If you also observe this in yourself, be sure to get a dose of physical activity while on vacation.

Return to work after vacation - adaptation to everyday life

Throughout our lives, we are faced with various situations that force us to adapt. Such a process of readjustment to everyday life also takes place after we return to work after vacation. You quickly get used to what is good, but the holidays are limited in time. Vacations are often a significant change in the pace of life. Give yourself at least a few days to get organized when you return. Return from your trip a few days before the end of your vacation to calmly take care of day-to-day business, such as laundry after the trip or shopping. Also ensure rest and regeneration after the trip. This mechanism will make returning to work after a vacation less taxing on your body.

Habits and holidays

Especially the ones about sleep. If your wake-up time has changed a lot while on vacation, bring it back to your daily routine a few days before returning to work. Go to bed and get up at times similar to your work week. Paul Walker, author of the book Why We Sleep, draws attention to sleep deprivation in adults. Sleep deprivation negatively affects our cognitive efficiency (memory, learning), and it will certainly be useful to us at a high level in the first days after the holidays.

One of the nightmares of the holidays can be the idea of how many tasks await us when we return. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in the first few days after your vacation. Give you space to run. Even a few minutes of break devoted to an activity that you enjoy (for example listening to your favorite song) or to a task with a specificity different from the one you have just tackled will help to dispel the feeling of fatigue.

Physical activity during holidays and after returning to work

Physical exercise improves the functioning of the area of the brain responsible for memory. In addition, it is enough to play sports once to increase the level of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, responsible for a good mood. Research by Wendy Suzuki has shown that a single exercise increases the ability to concentrate for the next two hours.

In the first days after the vacation, take care of your resources - freshly charged batteries. Give yourself time and space to get used to your daily habits and routine. After work, plan activities that you enjoy and relax. By taking care of boundaries and work-life balance, returning to work after a vacation will feel like a soft landing.