Going on holiday? Here is how to switch off from work



A holiday should be time away that allows us to unwind.  We should come back de-stressed, refreshed and re-invigorated.  So how do we switch off from work and enjoy our holiday?

David Willans, the facilitator of our Dads workshops and founder of beingdads.com gives us his tips and advice:

The point of a holiday is to connect to what really matters in life, your family, your friends and of course, yourself. Switching between holiday mode and work mode means you don’t do either well.

Start by planning early, don’t be the fool furiously bashing out handover notes the night before. Ernest Hemingway said the first draft of anything is shit. The same goes for your handover.

Your plan isn’t just for everyone else. Planning the week before you go gives you the time to tie things up and get the right plans in the right places. Nothing says ‘I’m winging it’ like last minute emails from the airport.

Think your plan through from different angles, your team, boss, clients, the business. That way you won’t leave anything to chance, and make sure you check in so you can leave confident that things are covered. No quick checks of your work emails while you’re on the lookout for you.

Set boundaries, ‘what happens if’ rules and a good out of office. Give that last one a bit of flavour. A human’s doing your job, not a machine. Not yet anyway.

And of course, mute those work whatsapp conversations, otherwise you’ll slip back into wondering about office gossip, instead of whether another mid-afternoon drink is a good idea.

If you are looking for additional reading, here are a couple of good articles:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/britons-summer-holiday-work-stress-switch-off-uk-poll-a8454391.html

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/people-parties/bazaar-at-work/a21749775/5-ways-to-enjoy-your-holiday-without-worrying-about-work/


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