The last days before departure are often packed. The suitcases have to be packed, the house to one side, and then there are work tasks that still have to be done before the holidays. The result: once on vacation you keep thinking about things that you didn’t finish properly.
‘Not only is that irritating, it’s also unhealthy. Just like you need weekends after a work week, you also need vacation to recharge from work. And you can’t do that if you are free, but you still have your head in the office’, says Ulrika Léons, health care psychologist at Skils Arbeid & Psyche, a national organization for psychological services to employers and staff.
Make an overview
If you don’t feel like a final sprint at the office, you should start preparing in time. Björn Deusings, time management trainer and author of Ready every day at 3 p.m. (2021), advises to make an overview of all your tasks at least two weeks before departure. You can subdivide these into things that you have to handle yourself, tasks that you can transfer and jobs that can wait until after the vacation. When you see how many things you still have to finish or transfer, you know how much time you need to set aside for that. “And it’s important to say ‘no’ to new work during that period.”
Psychologist Léons adds: ‘Plan in advance the tasks that remain for the first two days after your return. That way it won’t be a loose end in your head and it’s better to let it go before you leave. Inform colleagues or customers that you will work on this later.’
Keep the transfer short
Are you writing a transfer for your replacement? Keep it concise. Working out a whole manual is not necessary. Deusings: ‘Such an extensive document costs you a lot of work and your replacement probably has no sense and time to read it. This increases the chance that you will be harassed during your holiday. Better plan an hour to go through everything together.’
Stop responding to emails
Set up an out of office assistant in your mailbox. Do this two days before your departure so that no more tasks are added, advises Deusings. Stop responding to emails, otherwise people will assume you will continue to do so during your vacation. And then your out-of-office reply no longer has any value. The same goes for the return; let your automatic message run for one or two days longer, so you give yourself time to clean your mailbox and start up quietly.
Go away more often
Which also helps to relieve work stress just before the holidays: go more often, says Jeroen Nawijn of the Breda University of Applied Sciences. He conducted research into the relationships between human well-being and holidays. Going on holiday – and especially the anticipation – increases the feeling of happiness, according to his research. ‘Don’t go away once a year for a longer period of time, but book a short holiday more often. In addition, if you go shorter, there are fewer tasks that you have to complete or hand over. Most things can be left lying around for a week.’