There are some people who live for their work and almost have to be dragged away by their family to take a well earned holiday. The majority of us, however, don't fall into this camp. We probably don't mind our job, and hopefully get good satisfaction from the work we do, but we look forward to our annual holidays. It can, therefore, be quite difficult to adjust to the thought of returning to the day-to-day work routine. There are ways that we can prepare for the return to work that hopefully will make the transition easier.
1. Create a buffer between the main part of your holiday and the return to work. If I'm going away to some exciting holiday destination, I always try to allow one day back at home before returning to work. Otherwise the transition from sun-kissed beach to open-plan office may be particularly jarring! Having that day at home will also enable you to get over any jet lag and you can get used to the idea that you are going back to work.
2. Reflect on the great things that you've done whilst on holiday. Often listing all the achievements from your holiday will help you to accept that you've made the most of your time off. This, in turn, will make it easier to accept that it's time to get back to what pays the bills. Often, the times that we find it hardest to readjust to work is when we know that we haven't really made the most of our break and have regrets that the time has run out to do the things that we said we'd do.
3. Remind yourself of the great things about your work and all the things that you're going to achieve. There's nothing like a positive attitude to make the transition easier. Maybe there's a project that you're just about to deliver that will garner you kudos and a sense of satisfaction. Or maybe you're just looking forward to the chat with your colleagues or seeing that good-looking person from Accounts again!
4. Consider thinning your e-mails before you arrive back in the office. For many of us the main curse of returning to work is arriving to an in-box crammed with e-mails. For those people who can access their work e-mails from home, it might be worth devoting an hour or so the previous night to reading some of your backlog of e-mails. Okay, this is slightly eating into the last hours of your holiday but it may be worth it to be able to hit the ground running on the first day back.
5. Go to bed at a reasonable time on the last two nights before returning to work. Many of us (myself included) are night owls and have a tendency to stay up into the wee small hours during our holidays. Suddenly we are then faced with the prospect of getting out of bed at 7am in order to make it into work on time. This can be the biggest cause of dread for many people but is easily remedied by the sensible step of going to bed just a little bit earlier on the last nights of your holiday.
6. Don't overindulge on alcohol on the last day of your holiday. Christmas is a prime example of a holiday period when many people do a lot of socialising and inevitably this often includes alcohol consumption. This is fine in moderation but you probably don't want to be hung-over on the morning that you're returning to work, as that really is going to make that first day back extra tough!
These are some practical things that you can do to prepare yourself mentally for the return to work, and to limit any aggravating factors that may be preying on your mind. The key aspect in all of this is the attitude that you decide to take. If you can banish negative thoughts and focus on the positives, then this will make the transition from holiday to work much easier. Apart from anything else, it's worth being grateful that we have jobs to return to in these troubling economic times. Unfortunately, there are all too many people who have recently been made redundant and would jump at the chance to be able to return to work.