There are 118 days left until the year 2023. There are 17 weeks left until the start of a new year. How are you going to take advantage of this return to work and school these days and these weeks to get the best out of you, your team, your company and your brand? At TOTEM Branding we want to celebrate this moment of back to school and back to work with joy and motivation to continue facing the branding projects in which we work.
The return to work after the vacations can cause stress if we do not dedicate the necessary time and proper management. Mistakenly, we place all our desires in the vacations, since during the whole year, we do not stop to think about what we need and how we can dedicate the time we need, without waiting for the holiday period. Time to do what we like, to cultivate our personal relationships, to travel or to relax. Forgetting about oneself, among other reasons, is one of the causes that make the return to work a colossal difficulty and gives rise to the well-known post-holiday syndrome.
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” Muhammad Ali.
After the vacations, people who do not adapt to the return to work often report symptoms such as sleep disturbance, muscle aches, fatigue, anxiety, sadness, homesickness, difficulty concentrating and loss of motivation. It usually subsides in the course of one or two weeks, but to prevent it from happening, here are some tips to manage the return to work and thus combat the post-holiday syndrome.
Mark Twain said “The secret to getting ahead is getting started” so we take this opportunity to share some tips to better manage the return to work:
1) Motivate yourself
Allow yourself more leisure time in your first days back to work so that the return to work is not so abrupt. In this way, the change of pace of life will be more gradual and will not affect your mood so much.
2) Plan
To face the return to work, it helps to make a good management of schedules. Changing the hours from one day to the next is a very sudden change for the organism. Go little by little until you manage to readapt the schedule that best suits your day.
3) Calm and order
On your return, you may have a backlog of work. It is important not to be overwhelmed because it will not help you to finish your tasks faster. It is better to stop, assimilate all the work that needs to be done, establish priorities and consider how these tasks will be carried out. Organizing yourself on your first day is a way to be successful, stress-free and to start engines progressively, until you get back into the usual rhythm.
“The work that is never started is the work that takes the longest to finish.” J.R.R. Tolkien.
4) Physical and mental exercise
Physical activity helps us to feel better, since in addition to being a way to ensure the health of bones and muscles, it also helps to combat emotional disorders thanks to the release of endorphins and serotonin.
5) Good eating and sleeping habits
Added to the previous point, food and good rest would be the four key elements to lead a healthy life. Returning from vacation and keeping these four pieces of the puzzle in order and balance is an infallible method to face the abrupt change that can be the return to work after a period of rest.
6) Integrate activities from your vacation
Most of the time, the return to work is a problem because we stop doing activities that we did during the holiday period and, for this reason, it seems to us that the routine we had during the year is less intense. What if you change the chip? Incorporate into your week activities or habits that you find enjoyable on vacation and that you can adapt to your day-to-day life, without harming yourself.
7) Value your job
Think about all that your job offers you and value all the positive things it has for you. When you come back from vacation, the thought of how far away the next vacation is, and this thought completely blurs the awareness of the value of the work you do and being active in the world of work.
“Nothing will work unless you do it.” Maya Angelou.
At TOTEM Branding, we welcome the return to work and say goodbye to the vacations with a message of motivation, effort and valuing what has been achieved to face the second half of the year with enthusiasm, joy and optimism.
