Take your damn vacation already. If you’re employed and they’ve given you vacation time, take it. Believe me, the people who don’t have paid time off would be happy to have yours.
Now, how you prepare to go on vacation is up to you. Worrying for a full week about the work you won’t be doing, and the amount of emails that will be in your inbox when you get back, is one way to do it. Logging in continuously and then feeling sorry for yourself about having to do so, while blaming your company, boss, current housing situation or the guy next door is another way. Last but not least, go out on vacation and then overwork yourself trying to do two weeks of work in a week. That’s fun, too.
This year, try something new. The Friday of the week before you go out, block out an hour on your calendar. Turn off all notifications, sit for ten minutes and list out everything you need to have in order to actually leave on time, come back and know that other than your inbox, everything is under control. Write it all down. When you run out of thoughts, ask your brain for five more. Do that a couple of times. You’ll know you’re at the end when your brain starts handing you drivel.
Now, take that list and label the items A (must be done before I go) B(Must be done but could wait until I’m back) and C (Get real, I could go my whole life without doing this).
Label all the A’s by priority – A1, A2 etc.
Now, look at your calendar for the following week, the week prior to vacation. Put in your lunch hour. Put in your email time. Put in a couple spots for last minute meetings and put in a spot every day for the unplanned.
Go to the week of vacation. Delegate or decline everything you can. Reschedule what you absolutely can’t delegate or decline.
Go to the week after vacation. Look at what’s scheduled. Is there anything you’ll need to do before you go out to get ready for that? Write it on your list, mark it A,B,C and give it a priority if it’s an A.
Now, go back to the week before you go out. Add in everything, starting with A1, until you run out of time. Don’t overcommit. You’re not going to work sixteen hours a day to do this. DEAL with the reality of the time you have available.
This is going to happen anyway, so don’t lie to yourself. You could ignore this reality, but when the actual 24 hours comes around, you’re going to work on something, and the day will end no matter what. Wouldn’t you rather be doing the most important things?
We can’t escape the reality of the 24 hour day. Period.
Really work during this hour. lay it all out, get it as close to perfect as possible.
Follow your plan for one week. Then go on vacation, stay-cation whatever.
Here comes the critical part – honor your commitment to yourself. Turn off work, look around and remember what you love about not being at work. Really make this time as vibrant and wonderful as you can. Have a vacation if it kills you.
When you get back, do not let yourself fall into the mindset of overwhelm. Remind yourself that you have all the time you need to do the most important things.
Your colleagues are capable. The company can survive without you and that’s not a bad thing.
Sort your inbox by name. Delete all the emails “from” people or systems that you don’t need to answer.
Sort your inbox by subject. Keep only the top email. If they split the chain and kept the same subject, and they needed your input, they’ll reach out.
Now, plan your week the same way you did before you left and move on.
And that?
Is how you go out, come back, and stay even.