How to keep the holiday feeling when you return to work

The end of the summer holidays are in sight and if you’re not already there you will be starting to think about your return to work or school after the holidays. I’ve recently had this experience and gone from complete freedom (or as much as I can as a parent) to being constrained by my commute and working hours. The contrast can be huge. Going from leisure and relaxation to long tasks and deadlines.

Just one day in to my holiday, and away from work, I realised how stressed I’d been feeling; I’d been running on adrenaline, trying to get everything done. And if I didn’t change my behaviour I would probably go back to that feeling soon after I return to work.

How do I keep the relaxed holiday feeling when I return to work?

Why did you feel relaxed on holiday?

Think about your holiday in detail and identify why you felt more relaxed. What did you do differently? What did you stop? What did you start?

Thinking about my recent holiday:

I started

Waking up naturally with no alarm
Exercising every day
Getting more time outside
Reading more, including fiction
Doing puzzles e.g. Sudoku, logic problems
Having cream teas

I stopped

Using my computer as much
Watching TV

How can these fit into a normal day?

Holidays are different to normal days, particularly work days. So this isn’t about trying to recreate what you did on holiday at home or work. Instead, it is about identifying how, in an ideal world, you could bring some holiday themes into your every day. At this point, don’t be constrained about why you can’t do it, just think about what could be possible.

Looking at my list, I could introduce some of these activities as they are, and some need a bit more creative thinking.

The most interesting one for me is eating cream teas. It will not be healthy to eat those every day (especially if the scones are chocolate chip), so what is it about the experience I wanted to replicate. After some thought, I realised it was the feeling of calmness and luxury of pouring the tea into a cup.

Same activity

Waking up naturally with no alarm
Exercising every day
Getting more time outside
Using my computer less
Watching less TV

Adapting the activity

Making time for me in the mornings (reading more, doing puzzles etc)
Starting using a teapot instead of a travel mug

What needs to be true for you to introduce the activities?

Of course if it was easy you’d already be doing these things. So now it is time to think about what would need to be different for you to do these things. For example, is it a change of activity, routine or mindset?

Same activity

Waking up naturally with no alarm — go to bed earlier
Exercising every day — exercise — have a variety or exercise options, so I can fit them into any day, and go to bed earlier because I’d rather exercise in the morning and get my clothes out
Getting more time outside — give myself more time to walk between sites, to school etc
Using my computer less — decide on specific activities and a specific time to do it
Watching less TV — decide on specific items to watch and when

Adapting the activity

Making time for me in the mornings (reading more, doing puzzles etc) — go to bed earlier
Starting using a teapot instead of a travel mug -I need to think of ways to do this at work particularly when I’m away from my office.

Which can you introduce straight away? Which do you need to work towards?

Now it is time to look at those actions and split them into ones you can introduce quickly and ones you need to work towards.

Introduce straight away

When you look at the list do any jump out as easier, perhaps ones you can do straight away. Perhaps some of them are a slight tweak to something you already do, or maybe using different equipment.

Exercising every day — exercise — have a variety or exercise options, so I can fit them into any day, and go to bed earlier because I’d rather exercise in the morning and get my clothes out — I may not be able to do this in the morning until I’ve sorted my routine, but I can fit it in the evening
Getting more time outside — give myself more time to walk between sites, to school etc
Using my computer less — decide on specific activities and a specific time to do it
Watching less TV — decide on specific items to watch and when
Starting using a teapot instead of a travel mug -buy or find teapots — easy to do at home in fact as I write this I have my grandparents teapot and a tea cup next to me.

Work towards

Some actions will take more effort to introduce. Maybe because you need to buy something or it is a change of habit. Remember although it may seem daunting, it is worth putting in the effort to change your habits to keep that holiday feeling through your every day.

Waking up naturally with no alarm — go to bed earlier — this is something I am already working on, but it is not an immediate fix, this is serious change of mindset and routine
Making time for me in the mornings (reading more, doing puzzles etc) — go to bed earlier
Using a teapot at work – I only drink hot water at work so does it make sense to have a teapot? Plus what about the days when I’m at a different site? I need to look into options and may have to decide this is something I can’t implement every day, but some is better than none.

How am I doing after my return to work?

So I’ve been back from holiday and back at work for two weeks. And it has not been easy to retain the holiday relaxation due to the urge of losing myself in task lists at both home and work. However, I’ve made some changes.

Introduced

Exercising every day — I have not exercised every day, but I have introduced running back into the exercise plan. It has been a while since I last went running, and maybe this time I’ll learn to love it, but I’m mixing this up continuing with my exercise videos
Getting more time outside — this one reason I’ve started running again because it combines exercise with getting outside, so two wins in one activity. I’ve also sat outside to read
Starting using a teapot instead of a travel mug I’m using my grandparents tea pot and cup and saucer at the weekend and when I work at home (1 day a week). This is great as it increases my fluid intake and I get the moment of mindfulness as I fill the tea cup.
Using my computer less — I haven’t used my computer as much in the evenings (which is why this post is later than I wanted) and I’m focusing on turning it off by 10pm to start my going to bed routine

Work towards

Waking up naturally with no alarm — go to bed earlier — this is something I am already working on, but it is not an immediate fix, this is serious change of mindset and routine. I’m still working on this, I’m sleeping better than I used to, but want to shift my time, so I go to bed earlier and wake earlier, but haven’t got there yet. I’ll keep trying though.
Making time for me in the mornings (reading more, doing puzzles etc) — go to bed earlier — this is linked to the previous one, but I am continuing to meditate and some days I’m fitting in some reading.
Watching less TV — my husband and I tend to watch TV during the evening as we eat dinner. Usually we’ll watch one or two episodes from a series. So I’m finding it hard to break that together time and eat at the table. So I need to work on enticing him to join me at the table.