You’ve surely experienced this situation before. After two years, you finally go on a family vacation for fourteen days, disconnecting from the world and not dealing with anything. You need to spend time peacefully with your family, switch off from workaholism, and leave work aside for a while. It starts subtly. One call from your boss asking for advice on a small matter. Then a project comes along that you have to contribute to. In the end, you spend more time with your laptop on your lap than at the seaside. In the worst case, halfway through the trip, you pack your bags and leave for an important meeting. Family conflict is guaranteed. How do you really switch off from work on vacation and then avoid going crazy when you return?
How to disconnect from problems
Personal development is an absolute necessity for any manager who wants to handle their job mentally for longer than a year. Part of that is the ability to rest. You can’t be “on” 24 hours a day, eight days a week. We have a body that signals when it’s had enough. Stress negatively affects our overall health, and too much of it can lead to serious illnesses. Add sleep deprivation, and you have a recipe for disaster. Such a person cannot be a top manager. Fatigue will gradually show, and both management and subordinates will notice it. Therefore, when going on vacation, you must redirect your emails to someone else and decline all work calls. The first two days, you may feel anxious about how projects are running without you, but you must let that go. A company can operate for a few weeks without its CEO, so it can also manage without you.
How to plan your time properly
For better relaxation, you need to plan your time well and delegate work. Which colleagues are the most reliable and still able to handle tasks? Identify a few and hand over your responsibilities to them before leaving. Also, inform everyone well in advance about your absence so they can plan accordingly. This will reduce urgent calls. The remaining calls can be declined with a note that you are on vacation and include who will handle the customer’s problem in your absence. This also applies to weekends—you have the right to rest then too. Don’t make yourself a voluntary slave to your own work. Stress management is one of the essential skills of a good manager.
Will I be able to return?
You probably have a mental red flag blinking now: Sure, I can completely switch off on vacation, but will I be able to return to work without going crazy from stress after spending days just sunbathing and walking? Rational concerns are normal – everyone faces the return to reality, and many people feel it every Monday. This phase also needs to be managed well and with perspective. After returning, everyone will surely come to you with a pile of problems that need urgent attention. Try not to handle everything at once, and don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t have time right now.” This approach allows you to return to work much better and stress-free.
Where can I learn this?
These few tips are a good foundation, but they are definitely not enough. A far better approach is to study this systematically. How? For example, by trying an MBA program, which is increasingly popular here. Dozens of experienced tutors will teach you everything a proper manager should know – including how to rest and return to work.
