Below are five steps you can take to get yourself back into the work mindset, post-holiday season:
1. Rest
You may be thinking, but this is what I’ve been doing this entire time, right? Well, yes, but you still need to rest up a little more before going back to work. Give yourself at least a day to relax, free of busy activities and functions. Prepare yourself for work the night before you actually return to the office-iron work clothes, gather your work materials and work bag, set your alarm, go to bed on time. Just as they say you don’t want to go back to work the very next day after flying back home from out of town, you shouldn’t return to work without some time to fully relax and prepare the night before.
2. Head start
Now this may not sound appealing, but going into work a little early on your first day back can help jump-start your normal routine. Instead of dragging your feet out of bed and sluggishly returning to the office, going in earlier than normal will push you back into the familiar. This can also help you get a head start on your workload for the new year (or quarter).
3. Follow up
Many people go on vacation and leave behind unfinished work. Following up on emails, looking back at your past work history to see what you were working on before you left, and checking voice-mails and returning missed calls is a great way to get back into the swing of things.
4. Review
Take some time to review any goals for the new year, whether set by your employer, specific department, team or yourself. What do you hope to accomplish in 2013? What goals did you or your team set to wrap up 2012? Have you reached them? What steps do you need to take to fulfill each one? Reviewing your goals will help remind of you the necessary work you need to complete once your vacation has ended.
5. Converse
Don’t forget to make time to mingle with your coworkers once you return to work. Ask them how they spent their vacation time and compare stories on how all of you willed yourself back to work. Not only will this help you easily transition back into the work environment as the sense of familiarity and comfort takes over from chatting with your colleagues, you can also discover new ways of preparing yourself to go back to work as you learn what did and did not work for the others on your team.
1. Rest
You may be thinking, but this is what I’ve been doing this entire time, right? Well, yes, but you still need to rest up a little more before going back to work. Give yourself at least a day to relax, free of busy activities and functions. Prepare yourself for work the night before you actually return to the office-iron work clothes, gather your work materials and work bag, set your alarm, go to bed on time. Just as they say you don’t want to go back to work the very next day after flying back home from out of town, you shouldn’t return to work without some time to fully relax and prepare the night before.
2. Head start
Now this may not sound appealing, but going into work a little early on your first day back can help jump-start your normal routine. Instead of dragging your feet out of bed and sluggishly returning to the office, going in earlier than normal will push you back into the familiar. This can also help you get a head start on your workload for the new year (or quarter).
3. Follow up
Many people go on vacation and leave behind unfinished work. Following up on emails, looking back at your past work history to see what you were working on before you left, and checking voice-mails and returning missed calls is a great way to get back into the swing of things.
4. Review
Take some time to review any goals for the new year, whether set by your employer, specific department, team or yourself. What do you hope to accomplish in 2013? What goals did you or your team set to wrap up 2012? Have you reached them? What steps do you need to take to fulfill each one? Reviewing your goals will help remind of you the necessary work you need to complete once your vacation has ended.
5. Converse
Don’t forget to make time to mingle with your coworkers once you return to work. Ask them how they spent their vacation time and compare stories on how all of you willed yourself back to work. Not only will this help you easily transition back into the work environment as the sense of familiarity and comfort takes over from chatting with your colleagues, you can also discover new ways of preparing yourself to go back to work as you learn what did and did not work for the others on your team.
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