Holiday time can cause great anxiety for many people. You see, the distress is often caused by cramming too much into a few days off or by worrying about how much work is piling up.
Here are a few ways of minimizing the anguish often associated with something that is supposed to be pleasurable!
Action – First, underplan. Don’t cram your holiday with activities from morning until night. Allow yourself to sleep in or laze around.
Second, before you leave, organize your office and clear your desk of everything. Make sure you only have one tray available for incoming documents.
Third, make notes of where you are on each of your outstanding tasks. This cuts down the time you’ll take to get re-acquainted with things.
And fourth, surround yourself with love and joy and fun. Drama, politics or negativity are not required!
My worry on vacation is that I have no assistant, we cut back two years ago and its been just me, so if I leave for 5 days, I have 5 days of work for me to do when I get back on top of the day to day that needs to be done. But for those 5 days, I do not allow work in, nor do I try to fill it with activity, except fishing and relaxing.
I’ve read and believe that holidays are important to success because they allow the create side of the brain to surface, where most of the time on the job we are operating under the practical side of the brain, problem solving and strategizing. For me, a change of environment and routine is highly beneficial.