First of all, I’m encouraging you to leave any guilt at the door and put your worries away before you read this. Whatever’s brought you here just know that you’re not alone.
Because we all deserve time off and that is a fact.
If you’re reading this after coming back from a holiday, I hope you had a good one. If you’re reading this after taking some time off sick, I hope you’re feeling better now. If you’re reading this because you’ve taken some time away for personal reasons, I hope you’ve found the answers you were looking for, and it’s great to have you back.
Whatever your reason for your time away, whether it be good or bad, the first day back at work is usually the same for us all.
“Ugh…”
“Where to start…”
I know right? It’s haaard and it’s booooring. And can I just sit and daydream about that lie in I had the other morning?
You know it’s time to crack on. You know your headspace has got to change. But its tough. It’s not as simple as flicking a light switch and * bing* you’re back wearing your work hat. No, unfortunately it takes a bit more adjustment than that. You’ve got to find your work hat under that big pile of admin, dust it off, try it on, check it in the mirror, make sure it fits and then crack on.
So. In light of this fact, here are my top 4 tips to getting back into your workflow.
1. Take the pressure off
I know, I know, “easier said than done” I hear you say, but this really is the key. Accepting that it does take a bit of adjustment to get back into the swing of things instantly makes it easier for you to find your feet again.
If you give yourself a hard time that you haven’t already booked several clients or made lots of orders and done all your marketing for the next month, you’re going to be even more unproductive because you’re stressing yourself out.
Give yourself a buffer period; a couple of days after you get back where you’re in a working limbo so to speak. This is the time where you can familiarise yourself with it all again. Take a moment to digest it and plan what you’re going to do first.
2. Prioritise
Following on from step one, prioritising is the easiest way to take the pressure off and get clear on what you need to do first.
If you don’t already have one, make a to do list with everything that you can think of on it. It may be as long as your arm, but don’t worry about that for now, the point of this exercise is to capture all your thoughts and get them out onto paper.
NEXT is the part where you start thinking about each thing. Go through them all and pick out the ones that are urgent. What needs doing first? What can wait a few more days or even weeks? Only choose 3 things and they will be your first actions. Forget the rest of the list, you know it’s safe, you don’t need to think about it anymore. All you need to focus on are these 3 priorities first.
My best advice is to do the quick wins first to give you a boost, then you can tick them off the list and get some momentum going.
3. Stop looking at what everyone else is doing
Stay in your own lane lady! If you’re anything like me, you’ll come back from a break and look at Instagram and get serious FOMO at the tiniest things. “Oh so and so’s launched a new product while I’ve been away”, “Oh what’s-her-name’s going to be appearing on a podcast” and pretty quickly the comparison syndrome kicks in and “why oh why did I take that time off when the world is now 10 steps ahead of me?!”
Whooooa there Mowgli. Stop. Breathe.
Everyone needs some time away, and spoiler alert - it hasn’t hindered your success at all, in fact it’s actually made you way more productive because you’ve given yourself a much needed energy boost.
These people would have done these things regardless of where you were last week. It literally makes no difference to your life that they’re getting on with their own projects. So if it’s making you feel pants, stop looking. But really, if you can, see it as a reminder that you want to be cracking on with cool things too, and now’s your chance to do it.
4. Remember your why
If your heads all over the shop and you’re getting distracted by your to do list and what’s happening on Instagram, pause for a minute. Break the vicious cycle of procrastination by remembering your why.
Why are you doing what you’re doing? What’s the heart and soul of your business? Where does the passion come from? It could be for family reasons, to fulfil your need to travel, because of something that happened in your childhood - anything!
Really tap in to this, revisit all of the reasons why you set out to do this in the first place. When we remember our why we get clarity again, and with that comes new purpose and motivation to crack on.
Be gradual with this process. Allow yourself a good amount of time to ease back into your workflow. Soon enough you’ll find yourself back in the headspace you were before you left, and no doubt you’ll be ready to book your next break!