Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to ease your transition back
Speaker 1: to work after a vacation. Vacations are great, but when
Speaker 1: you step away from work for a while, the work
Speaker 1: doesn't exactly stop while you're gone. Indeed, enough of it
Speaker 1: can pile up that you feel like you're spending the
Speaker 1: first day or two just bailing floodwater out of your boot.
Speaker 1: It might be comforting to know that this is not
Speaker 1: a new phenomenon. It happened long before email. I recently
Speaker 1: read Eleanor Roosevelt's self help book You Learn By Living,
Speaker 1: and she mentioned that whenever she traveled, the mail would
Speaker 1: follow her. Yet when she returned from a trip, she'd
Speaker 1: still have to work late to deal with all her
Speaker 1: correspondence snail mail, email, It doesn't matter. People have always
Speaker 1: felt behind. Still, there are a few things you can
Speaker 1: do to ease your transition back to work after a vacation. First,
Speaker 1: consider leaving your out of office email on for an
Speaker 1: extra day. I think it's silly to expect instantaneous responses
Speaker 1: to email, but if you work in that sort of environment.
Speaker 1: At least, this buys you some extra time before the
Speaker 1: expectations start. However, you might also consider not treating your
Speaker 1: inbox as the first thing needing your attention. Much of
Speaker 1: it is probably no longer relevant. Instead, go talk to
Speaker 1: your colleagues. If you've been gone for a while. It's
Speaker 1: polite to go say hello anyway, but you can use
Speaker 1: this chat to ask a simple question, what did I miss?
Speaker 1: This immediately gets you caught up on what still matters
Speaker 1: in a way that reading an email chain from last
Speaker 1: Tuesday probably will not. You might consider not setting any
Speaker 1: truly consequential meetings on that first day. Open space gives
Speaker 1: you time to get caught up and also to prepare
Speaker 1: for what's happening in the future. If you have a
Speaker 1: big pitch meeting on the monday you're back, you'll definitely
Speaker 1: be thinking about it on vacation, and that can ruin
Speaker 1: the vibe if it's on Wednesday, though, you can deal
Speaker 1: with it upon return. So what should you schedule for
Speaker 1: the first day back? Well, how about lunch with a
Speaker 1: work friend or two whose company you really enjoy. This
Speaker 1: can help remind you what you like about your job,
Speaker 1: which can be a good thing to keep in mind
Speaker 1: if you're coming off a vacation high. As for the
Speaker 1: stuff on the home front, this might sound crazy, but
Speaker 1: unless your family is completely out of socks, you don't
Speaker 1: have to start laundry the second you get back. You
Speaker 1: don't have to go to the grocery store and then
Speaker 1: cook for the week either. Just order take out and
Speaker 1: push the laundry forward a day or two. Instead, use
Speaker 1: the time after you get back from your break but
Speaker 1: before you start work the next morning to relax, write
Speaker 1: down any cool memories or ideas you had well gone,
Speaker 1: and then get to bed on time. When you get
Speaker 1: enough sleep, then you can take on the world. How
Speaker 1: do you ease your transition back to work after a vacation.
Speaker 1: Let me know at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart
Speaker 1: media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's B the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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