Summertime is dotted with long weekends- Fourth of July, Labor Day, and “summer Fridays” all give us a chance to have more time off than usual. You’ll want to make the most of this upcoming long weekend and others by being able to decompress and not think about work. Here are three tips for having a stress-free time this holiday weekend!
1. Preparation is Key
Planning for a long weekend will ensure that your time off is meaningful. Move all deliverables to before or after the holiday and realize that many people extend long weekends, so build in a one day buffer for deadlines. Shift timelines so that items on your to-do list are spread out throughout the entire week- the first day back in the office is already stressful enough!
If the holiday occurs on a day where you have standing meetings, reach out to those people and either reschedule or condense the meeting into an email update. For other housekeeping tasks or internal items, set reminders on your calendar to tackle them. Taking blocks of time for regular work tasks will help you catch up on your workload efficiently.
2. Turn Off Work
The first step is to physically turn off your computer and put all work-related cell phone apps on “do not disturb” mode. If possible, disable notifications for emails and ensure you have an automatic away reply set up with an emergency number. That way, you can power down devices knowing that people will not expect responses from you, but do have a way of getting in contact in case of an emergency.
