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You’re sat on a sunny beach with the sound of the sea and the feeling of sand between your toes. But as much as you’re trying to relax, your mind keeps drifting back to the work you were so looking forward to leaving behind…
However, you’re not in the minority: struggling to disconnect from work during a summer holiday is an all-too-familiar feeling for many people. In fact, a 2023 poll by People Management found that two-thirds of respondents frequently complete work tasks during their time off. A heavy workload or push from managers or employers for constant availability can cause employees to feel guilty for using their allocated time off, leading to them working when they should be relaxing on annual leave. However, as impossible as it can feel to have a clean break from work for a week or two, taking time off to switch off couldn’t be more critical for our physical and mental health and wellbeing!
In this blog post, we’re discussing how you can reduce your work stress when going on holiday, detach from work-related pressures and get the most out of your time away from the strains of everyday life.
Why is Taking Annual Leave So Important?
The main reason we take holidays is to get a much-deserved break from work, but did you know that significant, long-lasting health benefits go hand-in-hand with taking time off?
Holidays can support our physical and mental wellbeing, which is why it is so important that you use up your full annual leave quota and try to switch off from work while you’re out of office.
- A holiday could benefit your heart health – a study in Psychology and Health showed that people who took more time off were less likely to experience the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, a group of health problems including high blood sugar and pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels. These problems increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, so the more we can do to avoid developing them, the better.
- A summer holiday can help your mind unwind – having a break from work gives you a chance to rest, which is essential for decluttering your mind from your busy work life. Being on holiday can also increase levels of mindfulness as a change in routine stops you from being on autopilot, helping you live in the moment and feel more present.
- A break from work could improve your sleep – time off from work can improve sleep by stopping you from following bad sleep habits, such as working late into the night. Interestingly, going away on holiday for your annual leave can support this further, as research shows that even being in a different bed can help you dissociate from negative sleeping patterns you might experience at home.
Ways to Reduce Stress Before Your Holiday
Don’t wait until you’re actually on holiday to try to lower your stress levels! Give yourself a head start by laying the groundwork for a peaceful break before you leave. Sorting out your tasks and talking to your colleagues will help ensure you can leave with a clearer mind.
- Prioritise your tasks. If you push yourself to complete as much work as possible before going on annual leave, no matter how tired it makes you, you’ll only end up feeling more stressed. One of the reasons why it’s so important to keep these stress levels down is because too much cortisol (the hormone your body releases when you’re stressed) can weaken the immune system, making you more susceptible to any nasty germs you encounter – and no one wants to have a stinking cold during the summer holiday they’ve been looking forward to all year. Instead of working yourself ragged, identify the most important tasks that need to be done before you go away and focus on them, being realistic and not overly ambitious about what you can achieve! If there are things you can’t get done in time that may need to be tackled while you’re away, speak to a colleague and see if they would be happy to finish them for you.
- Communicate – make sure your team know when you’re on annual leave. Ensuring everyone knows you’re taking some time off will help you reduce any annual leave-related last-minute stresses. Have conversations with them about any work or shifts that need covering whilst you’re away, and circulate the dates of your leave – it’ll give you peace of mind and reassurance that things are being looked after, leaving you to fully switch off. It’s also important to be clear about your boundaries during your time off. Let colleagues know if you’ll be contactable or not or if there are any urgent situations in which you would want to be called immediately.
- Set an out-of-office message. A week before you go away, incorporate an out-of-office message into your email signature (change this to an automatic email response to go out while you’re away), voicemail, and any other communications systems you use for work to ensure people know you will be going away and get regular reminders of the dates. Include information such as who to contact in your absence and when you will be returning to the office so that your colleagues can address any immediate concerns and people know when you’ll be able to respond again.
- Plan your return to the office. Planning your return doesn’t mean you should already be scheduling things to do when you get back (that could make you feel more stressed!), but thinking through a simple strategy for getting back up and running once you’re home can help you feel prepared. You could also plan your time off so that you return from a trip at least a day before returning to work. These measures will allow you to transition back into your routine more easily, unpack, catch up on household tasks, and get over any travel fatigue without immediate pressures from work making you feel stressed.
Ways to Reduce Stress Whilst on Holiday
Now that you’re prepared to leave work behind, it’s time to go on your holiday! But even with plans in place, it’s easy to find your mind drifting towards work instead of focusing on resting.
Here’s how you can switch off and find your holiday mode:
- Stick to any boundaries you decided on. To ensure you can let work stress go during your holiday, you need to stick to any boundaries you put in place before signing out for your annual leave. Leaving your work phone at home or turning off notifications and uninstalling apps that you use for work can help you completely unplug so that you’re not tempted to check any messages/don’t accidentally see something that makes you worried and forces you to contact a colleague or client.
- Limit phone usage. Limiting your phone usage overall can also help you destress by stopping the stresses of your everyday life from disrupting your holiday. Try to limit your use of social media, too, as checking these apps can stop you from living in the moment by showing you what’s happening at home and making you think about your daily life. Set screen time limits, put your phone on flight mode, or leave it in another room if you find disconnecting hard.
- Give yourself time to rest. If you’re going away somewhere new, you might find yourself trying to fit in as many plans and activities as possible, but try to avoid slipping into the constantly “doing” routine or on-the-go mode that you’re in at home. Remember: you’re on holiday – you don’t need to be ‘productive’. Make a list of the main things you want to do, but also allow yourself to rest – try to strike a balance. If you can, avoid setting alarms and let yourself wake up naturally so that your body can get as much as sleep as you need to recharge.
- Use stress-relieving techniques. Despite creating a good plan and trying to enjoy your holiday, sometimes stressful thoughts do come back up. And that’s okay! In these instances, knowing how to manage these thoughts or concerns can help you relieve your anxieties around work. You might use stress-relieving techniques such as meditation to do so, which enables you to focus on the present moment rather than your stressful thoughts.
An Easy Breathing Exercise
If you find yourself getting stressed, use this breathing exercise to help you calm down – it can be done anywhere!
- Part your lips and exhale completely through your mouth.
- Close your lips and inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds, keeping your mouth closed.
- Part your lips again and exhale slowly for 8 seconds.
- Repeat a few times until your heart rate slows and you feel more in control.
How to Support Your Colleagues When They Go on Holiday
As well as making sure you look after yourself when taking annual leave, it’s essential to support colleagues when they take time off, too.
Make things easy for your colleagues by:
- Making sure you know when they’re away from work – chat with your colleagues to make sure you know when they are unavailable so that you don’t accidentally contact them when they’re trying to switch off from work.
- Resolving any issues in advance – if you have any urgent questions or concerns, ask your colleague well in advance of their time off. Don’t save everything until their final day in office – they’ll be busy enough going through their own to-do list, and you don’t want to cause them extra stress or add to their workload.
- Schedule sending any emails for when they get back – if there are emails you need to send, schedule them so that they arrive after their holiday and don’t disturb them during their time off.
How Thrive4Life Can Help You and Your Team Combat Stress:
- Our Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation talk can help you and your employees learn valuable stress management techniques and strategies by introducing your organisation to mindfulness and meditation. A talk with one of our mindfulness and meditation experts could be the jumping-off point for regular team mindfulness sessions across your organisation.
- We give Wellbeing Talks and Webinars on various topics relating to all the key pillars of health and wellbeing. One of the key focuses of these live-streamed talks has always been mental health and stress management, and we work with those at the forefront of the march towards better mental health for everyone to bring you strategies which really do help. Past speakers have included Karen Liebenguth, a mindfulness and meditation expert and executive/life coach with over 15 years of experience; Cheryl Isaacs, chartered occupational psychologist and author; and Luke Silavwe, physiotherapist and fitness instructor with a specialist interest in the link between movement and mental health. Got an idea for a talk you’d like your team to have access to? We’re always open to accommodating requests.
- We offer a Mental Health First Aid course and a Mental Health Skills Development refresher course to train members of your team to become Mental Health First Aiders with the necessary skills to support team members who may be experiencing mental health difficulties.
Return to Work Feeling Relaxed, Not Stressed
Once you’re back from your time off, it’s important to make sure you don’t throw yourself back into work immediately. Give yourself a minute to ease back into the workplace and work out a logical plan for moving forward with your to-do list.
1. Check in with yourself
Take some time to check in with how you’re feeling before jumping back into work. Rather than mourning your time off and feeling blue about returning to normality, try to use the nice memories to keep you in a good mood, spark your motivation, and help you feel relaxed. If you find yourself feeling stressed, step outside, practise some quick mindfulness techniques, or do a short meditation practice.
2. Make a plan and reprioritise
When you get back to the office, take your time to look through any emails you’ve received whilst away and, before feeling overwhelmed by how much you have to do/catch up on, make a plan of what needs to be done first, in order of importance/urgency. You may find that your most pressing tasks have changed whilst you were away – and if you’re unsure about what needs doing first, talk to one of your colleagues! Tackling the most urgent tasks first will help you feel more on top of your workload.
3. Catch up with your team
It’s easy to imagine that you’ll have missed tonnes of things while you’ve been out of office and will need to catch up on a lot of news and updates, but talking to your team will help you find out the reality and reduce any worries you might have about this. You should also thank anyone who’s covered any tasks for you whilst away and offer to do the same for them if they take time off.
In Summary
A summer holiday can be incredibly beneficial for your health, but only if you manage to totally switch off from work and have a proper rest. Letting go of your work worries can be difficult, but setting your priorities before going away can help ease your mind and make your return to work calmer. Staying present whilst on holiday can help lower your stress levels and focus on enjoying yourself. So – book that holiday and give yourself the chance to relax and take a break!
