How do you get over the holiday fever?

[Poorvi Jhawar]

I am officially back from my (almost) month-long vacation. Amidst being jet-lagged, disoriented and tired - yes, vacations are tiring, I'm trying my best to catch up with emails, slack messages and pick up from where I stopped. Needless to say, it's not as easy as I hoped. 

How do you bounce back from your holiday bliss to work mode? 

I and I'm sure lots of other people who're back this week could benefit from some fantastic tips! :P 

P.S: Happy New Year All! Hope this new year brings in a lot of happiness and prosperity. 

[Kat Warner]

Be kind to yourself and others you work with. Time away from work is not always restful and low stress so give some room for distraction.

[Poorvi Jhawar]

Couldn't agree more! :)

[Samie Kaufman - Your Gal at Gliffy]

Everyone in our office is back and it's so nice to have the energy of a full office! (I'm an extrovert, can you tell?) 

This week in particular, or other times when my coworkers might want to be particularly chatty, like near my birthday as an example, I try to make sure I can step away from my desk for the things I really need to be able to focus on. Tasks like getting my inbox back to zero or tweaking some site content for SEO are not a big deal—if someone swings by to catch up, it's easy to dive back in.

But I definitely went and hid in an office to work on a blog post. :) 

[Poorvi Jhawar]

@Samie Kaufman - Your Gal at Gliffy 

Great points! I think it should I'll be following that next time :D

[Fernando Bordallo]

Happy new year!

My tip here is to be straight about it: 'Hello! I'm back! I need your help to make my return blissful. My email is packed, I've lost context of what I was working on (yes, my holidays were that good) and I feel like I need to catch up on many thing.'

That said, I personally like to think of my holiday return as a fresh start. And as such, the pressure reduces. Remember when you first join the team/company? those first weeks of thrill? That 😄

[Poorvi Jhawar]

@Fernando Bordallo You sound so Zen! 

For me it's the complete opposite - I can't switch off. I'm worried about the work I couldn't finish at the end of the year and catching up. I have a massive problem of forgetting things, so I write everything down. Once I'm back I read my notes to get back :P

[Jason H]

I worked through the break (I prefer to take holidays during the year when everyone else is working), so when people come back from their break, I try to remember to give them some time to ease back into it before I bombard them with questions.

[Poorvi Jhawar]

@Jason H that sounds like an awesome approach. I work on a few days while I'm on vacation because I cannot switch off and also I don't want to lose my momentum. I think it is satisfying to know that when I'm on vacation- I'm working because I want to, not because I have to.