With the summer heat inviting professionals from all over the country to take a well-deserved break from the hustle and bustle of work, people are scrambling to their calendars for an opportunity to go on a vacation. Of course, while most companies organize department-wide outings or team building events for their employees, others file for vacation leaves to go on a break with their families or immediate circle of friends. And while it doesn’t hamper their productivity in any way at work, there can be a little bit of lull when people start coming back to the office.

When it all boils down to it, you’ll be faced with a relatively large amount of backlog depending on how long you’ve been away from work. There’s a united front of opinions that point to the idea that the stress involved in preparing for vacation is lesser than the stress of facing the arduous set of tasks left behind at work. This stress can potentially undo the benefits you’ve acquired over the course of your vacation, making it more difficult for you to enjoy your work. 

Of course, it doesn’t always have to be that way. There are ways to stay in peak professional performance even after a few days (or an entire week) of a well-deserved vacation. Here are a few things you can do to have a prolific summer without having to compromise both the essence of your vacation and your productivity at work. 

Assess Your Work Load

Pertaining to the overall health of an individual, the adage goes: an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. The same can be said when it comes to dealing with work-related backlog as a result of taking a vacation. Before you leave to get some sun, sea and sand, make it a point to determine how much work you’ll be doing when you get back. 

You’ll need to categorize your tasks based on priority level, frequency and the time it takes to get it completed. Obviously, you might need to do some advanced work to get more high-priority tasks done whilst you deal with the rest a few days after your vacation.

Having this kind of awareness of how much work needs to be done before and after your vacation gives you the opportunity to fully enjoy your summer break. This is because the anxiety and dread of going back to work is alleviated by having a quantifiable measure of the monster that is backlog.

Queue Up Your Tasks

With relation to assessing your workload, it’s important to have these categorized tasks scheduled for completion. There are several ways to approach this, but the most effective way of doing so is through the use of simple project management technologies made available online.

As an example, Trello allows you to create lists and cards in order for you to categorize and segment tasks based on priority and type. In the cards, you can set deadlines and assign different people to a certain task that you need collaboration with to complete. If that’s not enough, you can have your Trello synced to your calendar and have this same calendar synced to an alarm that’s going to remind you of tasks that require your immediate attention.

Another point to note is when categorizing your tasks, it’s okay to be a little bit creative. If you have tasks that serve as an enjoyable challenge, you can have those scheduled for when you get back from vacation. The purpose of this challenging task is to get you back in the groove of working after a summer break.

Delegate Whenever Possible

One of the most fundamental secrets to being a good leader is being able to trust and delegate important tasks to people. If you’re a manager whose job it is to overlook people’s productivity, then you won’t be having a problem delegating tasks to different people. It might also make sense to choose a team member whom you feel is most competent to take up your post while you’re gone.

If you’re not exactly at a high enough level to delegate tasks, simply asking some help from your colleagues for tasks that aren’t that high priority can be considered. Whether it’s by way of owing them a favor in return or vice versa, just having someone to back you up can go a long way when it comes to handling a backlog or two.

Set Expectations Before And Upon Your Return

Before you leave for some well-deserved rest and relaxation, give yourself a little room to catch work momentum. When writing your email autoresponder, make sure that you include the detail that you’ll be getting back to whoever emailed you a few days after you get back from your vacation. Not only does this give you some time to catch up with your backlog, it also sets the sender’s expectations for a reply.

It’s important to notify your managers and/ or your subordinates of your vacation leave and expected day of returning. Even then, give yourself just enough time to work through backlogs. Whether it’s through social media or through whatever messaging platform your team employs, always notify them that you’re out. 

For messenger platforms like Viber or Telegram (or whatever platform your company uses), change your profile pic to something that’s indicative of being on a leave of absence. Most of the time, just having an image with the text “currently on leave” should be enough of a signal to members of your team to not message you.

When you get back, make it a point to go incognito in such a way that your colleagues won’t expect an immediate response from you. If possible, put your profile on Do Not Disturb mode as a signal that you’re working on some tasks that need your undivided attention.

Work From Paradise

While it’s true that going on vacation requires you to drop everything work-related, it’s always comforting to have the option of checking an email really quickly. So long as this work-related check in isn’t going to take hours and won’t be the sole focus of your day, you can still enjoy your days off.

Of course, you wouldn’t need to employ some of these tips if you already work in paradise. Imagine being able to take a breather from work with the sound and sight of the sea and its wondrous splendor right by your doorstep.

Enter Seafront Residences, AboitizLand’s beachfront property located in San Juan, Batangas. This 43-hectare beach community manages to strike the ideal balance between providing the modern creature comforts of the urban setting and the therapeutic traits of mother nature. Master-planned so most of the houses have a view from the ocean and are 5 minutes away from the beach, pools, clubhouses, the Seafront Town Center, greenbelts and parks, Seafront Residences is able to provide you a beachfront paradise that almost no other similar development rarely can.

For a limited time only (April 30),you can start investing in one of the units in Seafront Villas starting at PHP 20,000.00. You can also purchase a residential lot starting at PHP 19,500.00 and a house and lot at PHP 42,700.00.

If you’re interested and would like to get more information, feel free to visit this web page for more details: https://aboitizland.com/seafront-residences/. If you’d like to take a virtual tour, visit this web page: http://bit.ly/SeafrontResidencesVirtualTour.