Ahhh holidays! That epic time of not having to the things we normally do and focus on having fun. What’s not to love. A break from the norm and hopefully a fresh boost of energy to guide us through until our summer break. I don’t know about you but I always find getting back into the daily routine a challenge after a break. This year more than ever as Mr T and I had the luxury of 10 unadulterated free days at home. Long mornings sleeping late, lazy days of pottering about at home in the garden. We gave ourselves permission to relax and simply do nothing. As care-free as chilhood Lovely!
But now the holiday is over and real life is looming I find I don’t want to lose that feeling of peace. As much as I love my working life I really don’t want to adult!
Of course the perfect scenario would be to combine the two the carefree attitude of a holiday with my passion and intensity of my career. I mean who wouldn’t love that!
But how can we do that? As the vacation comes to an end, routine starts to impatiently bugging you, nagging you to give all the the things you have set aside for a week or so need your undivided attention NOW. Personally I am back at work facing the busiest 2 weeks of my year so far. Basically I am coming back to the ultimate recipe for stress.
Years ago I would have ploughed through and burned out rapidly. But now I am older and wiser, and have got the art of returning to daily life down to a fine art. It is of course impossible to have the exact same carefree lifestyle a vacation allows us.
However, IT IS possible to minimise the abrupt harshness of going back to normal life and bring some of your holiday spirit along with you.
It is all about how you approach the transitional week. The first week back or in some cases the first month back. You need to warm up the engine slowly to get things running at optimal capacity. With a little for thought, a shift in your focus and above all letting go of the chip on the shoulder that the holidays have to end you can get back into a healthy rhythm and minimise stress along the way. Even if like me, you have a busy or stressful time coming up after a vacation.
Here are my top tips on get back to the roots of your daily life after a vacation and bring a little holiday vibe into your normality.
Prioritise your Frogs and important tasks.
There will be somethings you are really not looking forward to doing after a vacation. That’s life. I call these my frogs. The jobs I have to do that make me squirm in my stomach. You know the ones that you really want to put off. You may also have deadlines that are a lot closer now than they were before the holidays. What I do is to prioritise my focus areas for the coming months. I allocate work bursts (or home bursts). Each week I know what areas of my work or life I am focusing on. It stops the feeling of being overloaded. I know what I am going to handle and when. Now with those pesky frogs, I get them out the way as quickly as possible. I literally swallow my frog by getting on with doing what needs to be done. And then once it is done the stress is gone and I feel lighter!
Make a game plan for your emails / life tasks
Hopefully, before you left for your vacation you turned on out-of-office replies on your work email. But there are still likely are a backlog of emails that need catching up on which could provoke some stressful thoughts and unrealistic pressure on yourself. Remember you don’t have to get everything done at once. Take a deep breath and arrange the messages into folders based on urgency, and give yourself a couple of days to get back up to speed. Do the same thing with your life tasks. Chipping away at stuff rather than trying to do it all at once is a much more effective and manageable way to get back on task.
Prioritise Sleep
Upon returning from holiday, make sure you prioritize sleep. If you don’t, you might start blaming everything else in your life for your internal chaos, when really all you need is a blissful night of slumber. Rest is one of the things we prioritise in a vacation. And as getting the proper amount of shut-eye can be the “magical” cure to a lot of things, do the same in your daily life. If you have a busy few weeks coming up make the time to carve out some sleep and even a lie in or two, failing that someday time naps.
Get back into your wellness routine
Stop feeling guilty. It is good for you to take breaks now and again. Now its time to get back on the horse again. Think of it as an act of self care as opposed to something you have to do really helps your mental energy levels. The important START SMALL. If you normally take a 5-mile jog in the morning, start with 3 this week. If you have a strict diet routine you broke during the holidays then start with breakfast this week then breakfast and lunch next week.
Don’t expect yourself to automatically jump right back into to your old routine because your body won’t be able to handle it, and you’ll end up getting more frustrated than feeling good.
Give yourself some fun
The post holiday blues are rubbish. So make sure you have some fun and something to look forward to. Getting coffee with a friend . . . having a sauna . . . allocating a couple of reading hours for yourself – be sure to have some fun things to lift your mood.
Get outside
One of the things most of us do more of on our holidays is to be outside. For me this week I set up my new vegetable garden. Today the majority of us work inside. Maybe you had a picnic or went to the beach or just a walk. While the sun is coming out go outside and great it. Eat out on your lunch break. Take a walk in the park on the weekend. Getting the sun on your head and the wind in your hair always makes you feel good and it’s a free way to boost your energy – Bonus!
How do you guys settle in to the roots of your daily life after some time away? Do you have any tips you can share which make the transition smoother and more enjoyable for you?
Let me know in the comments below
Have a lovely week 🙂
Love
Emma-Jane <3
