Having a swell family fun time and everything seems to be great until the last day of the vacation and suddenly you realize what awaits you ‘work’ sigh, the break is over and it’s time to return to your desk, anxiety kicks in and you start feeling overwhelmed.
Everyone at some point or the other has felt this way as they realized the holiday fun is over and they’d have to return to the office.
The idea of Returning to work after a holiday can affect a person’s feeling, the anticipation perhaps of a long working day, difficult commute or stressful journey… says Natasha Crowe a counsellor and psychotherapist.
Returning to work after a holiday can be both exciting and overwhelming, majority of people are less stressed after a vacation and feel more motivated to work, their work quality and productivity is better while for some others the positive effects fades with the thoughts of returning to work.
Dr. David Ballard says ‘Research shows that when people come back to work and there’s a mountain of work waiting for them… then those gains they made dissipate even faster… if you start worrying about that as your vacation wraps up, it’s eating into the recovery experience…it’s pulling you back into work when you are supposed to be still destressing and recovering’.
Workload expectations or challenging colleagues and bosses, getting back to a routine after a break can be hard and can affect a person’s feelings and cause anxiety, well these are probably the reasons we opt for a break/holiday.
Here few tips to help you ease the anxiety when returning to work
Plan ahead
Anxiety is always triggered by a negative thought. Planning the right approach to work can help overcome these anxieties.
Before you return to work you should take out time to plan out as much as you can, your work schedules and activities for that day or week and even for the month, and prioritize your to-do list. Set achievable and measurable goals to achieve, as this would help with required motivation for work.
Establish a more positive mindset
Complaining about our jobs during and after the holiday can feed our negative thinking pattern and preconditioned ourselves to resent going back to work, enjoy the moments of your holiday without thinking of work and after the holiday develop a positive mindset about work.
Think of the fun times at work focus on them and try reliving the memories, you feel yourself relaxing and smiling at the beautiful memories, your mindset starts changing towards associating work with positive and not negative feelings.
You can also establish a positive mindset by reading books, listening to uplifting music and exercising.
Like Theodore Roosevelt says… ‘believe you can and you are halfway there’
Relate with colleagues
when you resume from your holiday, it is very important to engage with your colleagues especially if you have been away for a long time. Try setting your mind to catching up with your colleagues on the first day of resumption rather than on tasks as this would help with the anxiety.
Take time during lunch break to bond with them, share your most exciting holiday moments, get updates and catch up on what you missed, ask questions about their holidays by doing this you are setting yourself up to be able to get back to your normal work routines.
Back on track
Resuming work after a long break can be rough, ease your mind into it don’t just jump right to difficult task, get organized. You can start with checking emails or completing easy tasks, get small quick wins nobody wants to spend all day slogging over a difficult task.
Taking breath exercises on interval, having a lot to do when you return to work is inevitable, so take out time to rest, take the workload one day at a time.
Doing all these with enthusiasm and commitment will set you back on track for productivity before you know it you are solving and completing daily tasks.
… the only way to do great work is to love what you do!
Steve jobs
Source: HBR, the muse.
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