How To Regain Control After A Vacation
04 Dec 2021
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
You’ve just returned from a two-week vacation on a tropical beach with white sand, brilliant sunshine, crystal-clear water, and clear skies. You’re feeling incredibly comfortable and content. It’s a wonderful life!
You reach for your glass to take a sip of your favourite refreshing beverage when it hits you like a tonne of bricks…
You’ll have to board an aircraft and return to reality the next day. Sigh.
While returning home after a vacation is unavoidable, it does not have to be a sad experience. After a pleasant trip, these useful recommendations will help you get your thoughts and belongings organized.
Prepare A Post-Vacation Memo
Is it usually a hardship to get back into your regular routine after a vacation? You can make things easy for yourself by leaving a few crucial notes for yourself in the future. This memo does not have to be fancy or formal at this point.
It’s simply a quick reference guide to help you get back into the groove of things. Open your calendar before departing for vacation and go over your post-vacation meetings and appointments.
Then jot down the top five things you’ll need to remember when you return on a little piece of paper. Your reminder should be taped to your planner, a calendar, or the refrigerator.
You’ll be one step ahead of the game if you just peek over the memo when you get home.
Extend Your Holiday By A Few Days
It may seem appealing to plan an overseas vacation, return home, and return to work the next day. Sure, you’re “saving” yourself a couple of vacation or personal days, but at what cost? It is the purpose of a vacation to help you unwind and relax, not to stress you out!
When you return, you’ll still have to cope with your daily duties, so why not take advantage of your holiday and get back into things gradually? Consider staying an extra day or two at home before returning to work to extend that calm, cool, and collected vacation mood.
You can’t afford to take any more vacation days? Plan your trip to begin and end in the middle of the week. It’s a lot less startling to return to work on a Wednesday or Thursday than it is to return on a Monday.
Unpack Your Belongings
Unpacking your baggage and bags should be one of your top concerns when you get home from vacation, even if it’s probably the last thing on your mind.
Yes, getting up and putting things away will require a concerted effort. But consider this: would you prefer to take care of your luggage now, when your schedule is somewhat light and flexible, or when your calendar is quite hectic and in full swing?
Within a day or two of your return home, unpack your belongings. You won’t have to think twice about it because it’ll be out of your way.
Here’s a quick list of things you can do to keep your home tidy once you unpack:
• Unpack your belongings and toss filthy clothes in the basket or the washing machine.
• Prepare your travel luggage and place them in dead storage.
• Return to the bathroom, vanity, or bedroom after unpacking toiletries.
• Unpack your passport or visa and keep it somewhere safe.
• Gather all trip receipts and place them aside for processing in the coming days.
• While your memory is still fresh, upload digital images straight away so you can precisely identify people, places, and stuff from your trip. Look at how to organize photos on iPhone.
• Make time to complete errands and household chores.
Returning to the daily grind includes getting back in touch with family, friends, and even pets, as well as buying groceries, doing laundry, processing postal mail, email, and voicemail, and processing postal mail, email, and voicemail. Those domestic matters, like your post-vacation bags, aren’t going anywhere, so it’s best to deal with them as quickly as possible.
Block out little chunks of time in your calendar for the first several days after your return to ensure you take care of tasks in a timely manner. These blocks can be as long as 15, 20, 30, or 45 minutes, or even longer if necessary. Simply schedule one chore or errand for each block of time and work your way through them.
Add these errands and chores to your to-do list:
• For food, household, or personal necessities, go to the supermarket, drugstore, or another vendor.
Laundry should be washed, dried, and folded.
• Collect, reroute, and handle postal mail, such as bills, notices, and announcements, among other things.
• Check and reset voicemail and email, respond to urgent calls and emails, and make notes about less urgent requests to follow up on.
• Pets can be picked up from a friend’s house or a kennel.
• Spend time with family and friends to catch up on things.
What are your thoughts? What measures do you take after a lengthy and pleasant trip to get back into the swing of things? Which of these suggestions do you believe you’ll attempt, and why? Do you have any further post-vacation advice you’d like to share? Participate in the discussion by leaving a comment below!
Cheers,
Big Daddy
If you would like me to review your product, service, restaurant, or travel destination, please send me an email at craig@bigdaddykreativ.ca or tweet me at @BigDaddyKreativ
Craig Silva
Craig is a husband, a father, team leader, travel and food writer, senior youth group coordinator, designer, brander, community builder, volunteer, and social media strategist. Craig likes to travel, go camping, go on road trips, watch movies, build stuff, operate the grill, and sing with his band. Craig is a member of the Travel Media Association of Canada. In June 2017, PR firm Cision identified Craig as one of Canada’s top 10 most popular male bloggers in the parents and family space.
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