Vacation Ready? 5 Tips to Help You Disconnect From Work

Or, even though we're not physically at work, are we still doing emails? Are we still taking calls? Are we still half in half out? For many managers, I know this is the case. It is very difficult to let go fully. Much of our identity at work is tied to being there. Maybe we tend to think," oh, they won't possibly manage without me", but there's a cost of not having that downtime. It means that we are in a permanent state of stress and activity connected with work. Work is so busy, so full on for so many of us most of the time. And we must take that time to recharge and, importantly, connect with our family, our friends, and our loved ones, and create memories and moments that add value to our life.

You can't just arrive at your holiday leave and off. You have to prepare, as a manager this will be in the two week run up to when you are away. Talk with your team, and  your colleagues.

Who are you delegating your work to? And are you communicating very clearly what your expectations are?. That would include what decision-making responsibilities are you delegating?

The next step is when you go on holiday, switch off. And that sounds so easy, doesn't it? Just switch off, but as we all know, it's much harder than that. It normally takes me a few days just to calm down and relax.

Avoid your phone. The nearer we are to them, the harder it is to leave the office alone. A quick look on Instagram or Twitter rapidly leads to jumping back into our email and checking work again.

We have to be very deliberate. There's an intentionality to it. Work out how are you going to manage this time? How are you going to create habits that allow you to be fully present with your family or friends on this vacation and tell someone.

The act of telling another person can make a big difference. For example, if I were to tell my husband, it would make me more accountable for leaving my phone alone. When I go on holiday, I am not going to go on Twitter because I know Twitter is too short a link for me to get back to working on my phone. Twitter has to go. By telling my husband this, I know that if he sees me going into some Twitter rabbit hole of nonsense, he'll say, "I thought you weren't doing Twitter", and then I'll remember and stop. More importantly, I don't want him to catch me. Accountability to an intention or goal creates change

Share what you are trying to do with your partner. Be deliberate with them in saying that you want this holiday to be special, set it up well, and then it'll help you maintain the habits of not slipping back into work.

If however, you think you can't fully leave your email and work completely set clear boundaries on what you will do. Many people I know, do feel that pressure.  For example, you might say I'm just going to skim my email for 20 minutes, every other day and then the rest of the time, I am not looking.

There's also a mindset thought that might help you follow it through. I don't think anybody gets to the end of their life and say, 'Gosh I'm so glad I cleared those emails whilst I was on holiday', but what they will say is 'I'm so glad I have those wonderful memories from my holidays with my family and friends.'

Being present and making that time work so that you have the best time will recharge you, and lay down memories for life. And if you don't need more of an incentive than that, I don't know what you need.