In my last post, I shared suggestions on how to prepare for a work-free holiday. However, there is little point to this if you return and within a day feel totally overwhelmed and stressed with all you need to catch up on…here are some ideas on how to beat this feeling and have an easy return to work…
- Don’t overload your first week…keep meetings to a minimum and block out time to catch up, read emails and plan your workload.
- Read emails in conversation view so you aren’t wading through masses of separate emails and can go straight to the latest update.
- Arrange handover meetings with your team. It’s often quicker to spend 10/15 minutes debriefing rather than trying to figure it all out yourself. They also know they have returned a task to you and can release them of any further responsibility.
- Once you’ve caught up on what’s happened whilst you’ve been away, create a to-do list and identify priorities.
- Work on tasks in batches and tick things off the list as you go. This breaks things down logically and gives a sense of satisfaction/progress when things are completed.
- Complete at least one thing you’d prefer not to do first thing each day so it doesn’t linger. It’s so easy to leave these things to last, but it’s often better to just get them done, and they are never as bad as expected!
So, these are my tips for a stress-free first week back to work. I’d love to know if you have any to add.
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