HOW TO PREPARE TO RETURN TO WORK AFTER A HOLIDAY BREAK

Now that Christmas has passed, many of us only have a few more days before we have to be back at work for the start of the year. Some of you may already have been to work!

I work in education, so we take breaks at the end of each semester. I had the privilege of having nearly two weeks off of work, which means I've slept in a bit and had nearly no structure to my day for the past two weeks! That's all about to change on January the 2nd.

So, to help myself and others, here is a guide to prepare to go back to work after New Years!

GET BACK ON SCHEDULE

One major issue you may find yourself in is a lack of structure to your day. You should start combating that this week so you're back on schedule when you go into the office after New Years.

​Start waking up at your usual time. You can either do this gradually or all at once.

Additionally, follow through with much of your morning and afternoon routines. This means getting dressed, making and eating breakfast, and so on. This will put you back into the right mindset.

GET ORGANIZED

Organizing puts you into the headspace that gets you ready for work. For me, I like using my planner to schedule my time properly. I also like to use an app called Wunderlist to write down the things I need to do and add deadlines to them.

This always puts me in a good place mentally because I feel more prepared!

PRIORITIZE 

Think about the work that you need to do and prioritize what you should start with first.

Doing this before you get into the office will help you have a good basis on which to start. I work in a productions position, so we have a list of the things we need to do, and I always know what I'm personally working on. 

However, some things are a higher priority than others. I always keep mental stock of what I need to do when I return to work.

CLEAN UP YOUR DANG HOUSE

It was your break time, so you didn't try and keep your house tidy. You may have had relatives over for a visit, or you may have returned from a visit and left a mess everywhere. 

Cleaning up your mess while you still have time before work starts will help you feel more organized and put together when your job does start up again.

PICK OUT SOME OUTFITS

When you start to feel stressed about getting back to work, start picking out some outfits. This can help you refocus your stressful energy on something else.

​Plus, if you have your outfits picked out, you'll have less to worry about in the morning when you start back to work!

CONSIDER AUTOMATING SOME TASKS

It's been about a year since I invested in an Echo Dot and some smart plugs throughout our house. At night, I load up our coffee machine with water and coffee grinds. When I wake up, I tell Alexa to "turn on the coffee machine" and I can focus on getting read while knowing freshly brewed coffee is waiting for me in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure you can automate this further to have it auto start at whatever time you want it to!