August 28, 2020

5 tips to install a routine when going back to work after holidays

Are you back from the holidays? If like us, you did not take any time off during and after quarantine, you deserved to take a few weeks off.

However, going back to work after a relaxing and long time off is sometimes hard to accept, anticipate. You might be feeling like you are going through "back to work/school suffering" and this is normal.

Here are 5 tips to live your back to work at its best:

1. Take one or 2 days at home between your holiday and your return to work

If you are like us and took some time off with long-distance flights or commutes with the car, you might be exhausted by all the travel and need some time to "Netflix and chill" at home.

One mistake Hassen & I usually make is to go back to work the day after we come from travel (sometimes after a 12 hours flight). The issues are:

a- We did not realize and acknowledge that we came back to work. Thus we feel lazy. Our body switches from 9 hours to 7-8 hours of sleep quite abruptly.

b- We were not that motivated to work and were waiting for the week to end so that we can go back to "holidays" at least for a weekend.

It's was like an intermediate state where we were not on holidays neither at confusing work.

To avoid that, for a few years, we usually took one or two days off at home to get some time to rest, clean, order things at home and chill.

2. Define your goals and prepare yourself to come back

One thing we always try to achieve during the holiday is to reflect on the last few months to identify what went well, what we could improve, and what are the main goals of the next months.

We also prepare ourselves by buying new outfits & clothes.

One of the must-haves of this season is our timeless document bag: just the right size to pack in your computer and documents.

3. Keep the holiday spirit

Yes, the holidays are over. So what?! Keep up the morale and remember those amazing days where you went to the beach, went on a hike, or just stayed with your beloved ones.

Something very important is not to keep it to yourself. Yes, going back to work is terrible. But most of your coworkers probably think the same! So keep up the spirit and try to enjoy the small moments of work

4. Share your expectations/limits with your team

At the beginning of my career, I was protecting myself from sharing my feelings/ doubts/ fears with my co-workers ending up being not close to any one of them. Taking a step back, I think it was a mistake.

Now and in the future, I am always identifying "my core group", people I trust and feel at ease with and I can share with them doubts, expectations, and limits at work. This helped me feel more at ease at work and feel like myself all day.

5. Take some weekends off to ease the go-back to normal

I know, some of you will say "Choose a job that makes you forget about waiting for the weekend". Well, until then, we decided to celebrate the small achievements and discover different countrysides of France during the weekend. Take some long week-ends off (3-4 days) to unplug and recharge from work and come back with even more energy.

Wishing you a great come-back!