The blog

For you who pre­fer lis­ten­ing to read­ing, this post is also avail­able as an episode of the ​“Done!” pod­cast:

A lit­tle easier

To avoid this uncom­fort­able jolt back to work, do some­thing con­crete today that will make it at least a lit­tle eas­i­er to get back to work after the sum­mer. Give your post-hol­i­day-self the pleas­ant sur­prise of find­ing that some­one has already done a bit of the work you are sup­posed to dig right into so that you do not have to full-throt­tle the first week.

Do this

If you want to give your future self a hand and make sure that love­ly hol­i­day-mode lasts just a lit­tle longer once you are back to work, then do this:

1. Look through your cal­en­dar and see what you have planned for the first weeks back at work. Do you have any meet­ings booked already? What will you need to do in the first few days back?
2. Also, look through your to-do-list and see what tasks you have that need to be com­plet­ed in the first few days back.


3. Choose at least one thing you will need to do right after you get back and do it right now instead — before leav­ing for the sum­mer hol­i­days. If you have time to com­plete more than one item on the list, that is a bonus, but I am almost cer­tain you have time to do at least one task. It is def­i­nite­ly worth that lit­tle extra effort required to get a sin­gle task done with extra­or­di­nary fore­sight since you are up to speed now any­ways. It does not need to be a large, exten­sive task. Some­thing small will do. You will still feel grate­ful towards your­self when you get back to work and find the task already done.

Off to a more pleas­ant start

If you do some­thing now that you would oth­er­wise have to do when you get back, you will send your for­mer self a thought of grat­i­tude in the first few days back at work. You are doing a good deed for some­one and will be reward­ed twofold — you will feel the joy of hav­ing helped some­one and the joy of hav­ing been helped. Sure, it does require a tad more work right now, but since you are so busy already, per­haps you will not even notice and the relief you will expe­ri­ence from hav­ing less to do once you get back will make it worth it.

What’s your trick?

How do you wrap things up before a longer break or vaca­tion so it becomes eas­i­er to come back to work and get start­ed again? Please write to me an tell me!

(By the way, do you know what you can do today to relax bet­ter dur­ing the upcom­ing vaca­tion?)