Are You Dreading the Return to Work?

Here are a few thoughts from Praesta to help you on your way.

We’ve just had the last Bank Holiday before Christmas. Are you setting out for work with a spring in your step, or can you only think about how much there is to be done? Are you feeling refreshed or have you been sleeping badly in the run up to your return?

These ideas might help you lift your mood:

• It’s natural to feel a sense of anti-climax when a long- awaited break is over. Try jotting down all the positives about the upcoming season, your work and your colleagues. Who will you be pleased to catch up with? What do you love about autumn?
• What opportunities might the coming months bring, whether inside or outside work? Can you capture your thoughts before getting caught up in the day to day?
• Having stepped back from work and had time to reflect, what would you like to change or do differently?
• Remind yourself that the end of summer often feels this way. Once you’re back in the swing you will be fine.

And here are some specifics for the workload. Again, anxiety about the unknown is usually worse than the reality, but the worst thing is leaving your worries to swirl around in your head. Your rational brain is incapable of processing more than one or two concepts at once. Myriad thoughts just feed your anxiety and make it impossible to think straight (let alone sleep soundly). Try:

• Recording everything that is going round your head, and putting it into categories or pictures
• Identifying the things you already know must be done quickly, and can only be done by you
• Identifying the things that aren’t urgent or can be delegated
• Accepting that some things will have to wait.

Do this a day or two before returning, and put it aside well before you plan to go to bed. Try to relax, knowing you already have a plan, and that your subconscious will work on it for you.

And in the first few days back, get updated by talking to people who’ve been at work in your absence. It’s much more stimulating than ploughing through old email chains, and makes others feel appreciated.