Most of us will be having (or will have had) a summer holiday of some kind this year.  As there’s only one bank holiday left before the long stretch to Christmas (which is fast approaching!), we’ve been considering how we can help you beat the holiday blues when you get back to work after your holiday.

We’ve all been there… you’ve got all your work in order before you go, left hand over notes and annoyed everyone with your excitement (and daily countdown) for your trip to the sunshine, you’ve done the panic over the passports, overcome the airport delay with positive enthusiasm and finally get to your destination.  For the first few days you’re probably still feeling stressed, but after a few days you start relaxing and really enjoying your holiday.  Work and the UK seem like a distant memory and you can already see yourself living over there and not wanting to return to your normal life.  You’ve checked the weather and know it’s raining in the UK but can’t help feeling secretly pleased that everyone else is getting rained on while you are sunning yourself in the presence of a palm tree!

All good things, sadly, must come to an end.  When you get home, you arrive to the post (well, bills), have loads of washing to do and need to get some food in the house – then it’s back to work – it’s not as though you can ease yourself back into ‘normal life’!  It does make you wonder whether it’s all been worth it apart from the fabulous tan!

Dragging yourself out of bed on the first day back to work knowing you’ve got hundreds of emails to wade through, then that project starts and deadlines aren’t too far away, then there’s….arrrgggghhh  – and the stress levels return.

To help soften the blow, we’ve come up with a few ideas to help you beat the back to work blues:

1. Don’t try to get through all of those emails in one go!  Have a look through and deal with the most important ones, then stagger the cleansing process for the others.  You can’t catch up on a week or more of emails in one day.  Set aside some time to go through them.
2. Sit down with your boss and/or other staff to have a catch up meeting to find out what happened while you were slurping cocktails by the poolside (non-alcoholic of course).  It will give you all the information in one go rather than you having to play detective and piece together information as you go along – and it will enable you to prioritise your workload.
3. Make sure you take a break.  You don’t want to overload your body or mind on your first week back.  Work hard, but pace yourself!
4. You can’t possibly feel bad about something that happened while you were away, so don’t make yourself feel guilty about that disaster that happened in the office last week.  It wasn’t your fault!
5. Catch up and get through the work that needs doing before you volunteer for any new projects that are going to leave you feeling swamped – otherwise your stress levels will return and you’ll be back at square one.
6. It will be easy to get fed up if you keep thinking about how much you wish you were still on holiday.  Look on the bright side…if you are at work, you are earning the money to pay for your next holiday and you can go somewhere else to relax again soon.
7. Continue with any healthy habits you developed on holiday.  If you enjoyed swimming, get yourself down the gym – or if you enjoyed healthier food and feel better for it, keep up the healthy diet.  Feeling good about yourself will make you feel better about being back at work.
8. Try and avoid getting yourself as stressed as you were before you went on holiday.  If there are issues that were getting you down, confront them if you can.  Organise your work, prioritise, communicate and have a clear desk.  Clear desk, clear mind.
9. Keep the holiday spirit with you.  Enjoy showing everyone the photos and telling them about who you met, what you got up to…and then book another holiday for next year to keep you motivated and positive.  We all need something to look forward to.  If you can’t afford another holiday just yet, plan a nice weekend or a treat for yourself so you’ve got that to look forward to instead.
10. You’ll always have the memories to get you through the holiday withdrawal  symptoms you may experience.  In the meantime, if you are struggling, you can always just flaunt your tan!  (You could also read our Top 10 Ways to be Happy at Work post for added inspiration.)