Holidays and Resilience

A guest article from Tony Wallace

Welcome to the eleventh edition of Guest Articles, where we hand the reins of the Rag over to our community, who can write about whatever they want. The only requirement is that it strengthens our community or helps us achieve our goal of making Canberra suicide-free. This week, we hear from Tony Wallace for the second time in Guest Articles

Holidays and Resilience

A guest article from Tony Wallace

The festive season is almost here and for many it is a time for us to take a break from work. Some will continue to work to keep our community functioning and hopefully, your break is not too far away. 

Mark Bouris’s 5 Rules for the Holidays – Mentored is a great place to start for some inspiration about maximising the value of your holiday. These tips have broader application than just being on holidays. 

Over the past few months, I have collated a collection of summaries about preparing for, taking, and returning from a vacation. Hopefully, these ideas will help you to take, enjoy and return revitalised from your time off.

As I have gotten older, I value time off more. 

Please take time to disconnect and recharge your batteries to enhance your personal resilience.

Why You—and Your Team—Need a Vacation

Are you planning to take a vacation this year? And if you’re a manager, have you encouraged your employees to take time off as well? Whether you spend your break lounging by a pool, going on an adventure, or even having a staycation, research proves that vacations can be deeply beneficial. To make the case to your team (and yourself) that it’s time for a break, focus on three areas: 

• Mind. Taking a vacation can provide a much-needed opportunity for rest, relaxation, and—crucially—better sleep. Paying off your sleep debt will significantly improve your mood, focus, clarity, and creativity, both on vacation and when you return to work.

• Body. Everyday work pressures can result in elevated levels of stress hormones over time, which can suppress your immune system. Relaxing on vacation can reduce the levels of these hormones and allow your immune system to recover, making you less prone to getting sick. And depending on how you spend your time away (like being in nature, walking, or exercising), there could be additional physical benefits. 

• Soul. Stepping away from the daily grind can be an opportunity to tune out external noise and tune into your inner voice. The answers to life’s big questions (“What do I really want?” or “What do I value most?”) are more likely to come to you when you have some space to reflect.

This tip is adapted from “How Taking a Vacation Improves Your Well-Being,” by Rebecca Zucker

Set Boundaries Before You Go on Vacation

Do you have a hard time disconnecting from work—like, completely disconnecting—while you’re on vacation? Here are five things to do in advance to protect your precious time off. 

• Provide a plan. Prepare a document outlining how your work will get done (this assumes that you are taking a break when the rest of the office is working – have you got someone who can deputise for you and have you developed them to give you confidence that they can do your job?). Who is the emergency contact for each issue that could arise in your absence? Who will manage any ongoing projects? 

• Block your calendar. This way, your manager, colleagues, and clients will remember that you're out-of-office (OOO) any time they try to send you a meeting invite.

• Send pre-notices for standing meetings. Don’t just decline standing meetings the week of your vacation. Send emails to let the people who run those meetings know that you won’t be there—and ask if there's anything they need from you before you depart. This is being proactive.

• Optimise Your Out Of Office (OOO) message. State that you will not be reachable until the date you return. Include an internal contact for emergencies and one who will handle other important but non-urgent inquiries. Don’t invite others to call you if it is urgent.

• Send a final reminder. The week before your vacation, remind all your relevant collaborators when you’ll be on vacation and the date you’ll return.

This tip is adapted from “Set These 5 Boundaries Before You Go on Vacation,” by Marlo Lyons

Take a Vacation the Right Way

You plan a vacation to relax, rejuvenate, and forget all about work. But being out of the office often means doing a mountain of extra work before you leave and after you return. How can you ensure your time off doesn’t inadvertently make you even more stressed? 

Before your vacation, overcommunicate and delegate. Make a prioritised list of tasks to be done during your time off and establish a handoff process for each one, coordinating with anyone who will be filling in while you’re away. Then send out advance notice of your vacation to anyone who might be impacted, so they’re all aware of how long you’ll be gone and whom to go to in your absence. 

During your vacation, set an intention: Are you trying to relax, learn about a new culture, or connect with friends and family? Think of this intention as your only job during your time off—and give yourself permission to unplug from work so you can focus on achieving it. 

Finally, when you return from vacation, take the first 30 minutes of your first day back to make a list of priorities, ideally before you open your inbox. Then tackle your new to-do list one item at a time. 

Remember: You deserve a restorative vacation—not additional stress for taking it.

This tip is adapted from “How to Minimize Stress Before, During, and After Your Vacation,” by Tristan Elizabeth Gribbin

When You Need a Break...After a Bad Vacation

Time off doesn’t always go as planned. So, what can you do when you come back to work more exhausted than when you left—especially when everyone assumes you’re well rested and recharged.

First, take stock of your health and energy. It’s possible that you’ve veered away from your healthy routines, maybe skipping physical activity, indulging more than normal, or spending more time around challenging family dynamics. When you return, assess your sleep, movement, interpersonal connections, time spent outdoors, and relaxation, and determine what you need.

Then ease back into work. Resist the temptation to dive into work headfirst by building in a day of transition and recovery before returning to normal. You might even extend your auto-response by a day or two.

Be sure to reflect on the positives of your vacation and reframe and learn from the negatives. Even a bad vacation might have had some highlights—savour those. And use the lowlights to clarify what you need from future time off.

Finally, take the opportunity to start fresh and set new habits and routines. Your return is a great time to establish practices that further enhance your energy and productivity, like exercising, setting new goals, or writing in a journal each night.

This tip is adapted from “When Your Vacation Wasn’t Exactly Relaxing,” by Noémie Le Pertel

Ease Back into Work After Your Vacation

After taking a vacation, it can be tempting to overwork to try to make up for “lost” time, get back up to speed, or relieve team members of the extra work they were covering for you. Whatever your motivation, resist that urge. Boomeranging from one extreme to the other can increase your stress and undermine your ability to catch up. It is better to ease back into your routine. 

First, shift your mindset about rest and recovery. Rather than treating time off as a last resort only after you’re depleted and unproductive, or as a special reward when your to-do list is finally done, take a cue from top athletes and think about recovery as an essential element of performance. 

Then create buffers upon your return, like setting a no-meeting policy on your first day back or waiting a few days before working on any high-stress assignments. 

It’s important to give yourself permission to say no to new requests. Remember, you don’t owe anyone anything just because you took time off. Take this as an opportunity to refresh your work boundaries—and reflect on whether your employer respects them.

This tip is adapted from “Stop Overworking After Vacation,” by Darin Rowell and Kandi Wiens

As Scott Adams says don’t accept advice from cartoonists. Have a great break.

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