Five steps to readjusting to work life after a holiday

If you have come anywhere near my social media accounts lately, you might have noticed that I have just spent two weeks in the Philippines. I needed a holiday badly – and this was a proper holiday.

I mean…

 Ja. So there’s that.

Being on remote islands meant I had no choice but to unplug completely, and, much to my surprise, I found that I was able to forget about work (which, after starting your own business and not thinking about anything else for two years, is quite an achievement, I feel).

The challenge, after a total break like this, is readjusting to work life back in the real world – physically, mentally, emotionally. No cold beers in the sun over lunch? No afternoon nap? Crisis!

Here are five tips to do just that:

1. Try and schedule your return flight on a Friday so that you still have the weekend to unpack, get over jetlag and generally come back down to earth. After picking the Philippines as your holiday destination, this is the single best decision you will make.

2. Avoid getting sick upon your return. Heading into work on Monday full of flu really detracts from the whole “healthy island glow” vibe (dammit).

3. Ease into it. Don’t be over ambitious. Accept the fact that your entire morning will be spent trawling through emails – hopefully most of which will no longer apply to you, having been taken care of by your amazing colleagues (amazing).

4. Accept that it might take a while for your brain to return to full operating capacity. You might be driving to a client meeting and find yourself outside the offices of the wrong client. And that’s ok. Just give yourself a time buffer in that first week back.

5. Use the readjustment period as a little window of perspective. This is one of my favourite things about travelling, strangely – the way I feel when coming home. Sometimes all I want to do is stay on holiday and not go back to reality. But this time, I found myself really looking forward to it. Not because I was tired of snorkelling with turtles, exploring white sand beaches and sampling ALL the pancakes at ALL the restaurants (believe me), but because I love the life that I’ve built. It hasn’t been a walk in the park, but I love it all the more because of that. And Pomegranite is right at the heart of that.

This little spotlight that returning home casts onto your life and how you feel about it is travel’s last parting gift. Whether you use it or not is up to you, I guess.