Coming back from secured leave or any time away can be refreshing but also anxiety producing. For anyone, being away from work is supposed to be regenerating and necessary in order to practice effective self-care. However, when one returns from that time off, its like the hits keep on coming. I find that I am excited to get back to some tasks from which I just needed a break. I have had time away from them in order to get perspective and think of more productive ways in which to approach them or problem solve them. However, the sheer volume of things that need your attention can seem overwhelming, and it can be difficult to focus on where you need to start. So, in surviving my first week back from time away, I decided to come up with some things that were helpful to me returning to the deluge:

• Don’t Schedule Commitments for the First Week Back

            This is key to a better transition back from time away from the office. Try not to schedule much if anything the week you return from vacation. Because, regardless of what you have decided not to schedule, things will come up due to the bare fact that you have been away from the office and are now back to attend to things. Trust me, you will thank me for this later.

• Be Vigilant with the Phone

                  When I recently returned to the office, I needed to get some much-needed office work accomplished. However, that would have been impossible if I was always interrupted by the phone. So, I told our administrative assistant to hold all my calls save for one in which I needed to speak with that person and was expecting a call. This helped me leaps and bounds as I was able to focus very simply, when I returned, on what I had to get done. Of course, I returned all the calls that came in, but I made sure not to just resign myself to the anxiety of responding to phone calls upon my return while having to accomplish necessary tasks. It is totally okay for you to have a message taken and get back to them. There are not many things that are an emergency, and low and behold, none of the calls that I deferred to a later time, amounted to one.

• Take Your Time

                   Yes, you have tons to do now that you are back. No matter how well the preparation before going out of town, one always comes back to the office with this unsurmountable to-do list. For me, I reiterated to myself that I had the ability to take my time to ease back into work. That is perfectly okay. Do one thing at a time, then move onto the next task. Give yourself the permission to slow down. This is because you just were totally away from work. So, going from zero to sixty once you get back can act to erase all of the healing effects that you just acquired from being away from work. Don’t worry, you will absolutely get to everything on your list. Just take a deep breath and allow the room and space for you to ease back into that frenzied pace routine.

             As with most of my lists, this one is evolving as I hone my abilities to return to the office when I have deigned to take a step away from work. I will work on it…pun intended.

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