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How to switch off during half-term

Tess,   28th October 2019

How to switch off during half-term

It’s half-term and you have the week off to spend time with your family, but you can’t switch off…

You’re worried about unread emails, Excel spreadsheets, and meetings you’re going to miss…

If, like a lot of others, you struggle to switch off during half-term then follow our below points and hopefully they’ll relieve at least some of the stress you feel.

Delegate responsibility:

Before you go on holiday make sure you leave your work in a good place; respond to all emails, delegate responsibility for all necessary tasks to another person(s) and ensure they know what to do prior to your holiday.

Keep templates:

Write down a step by step process for anyone who doesn’t normally do your tasks, so they can follow it easily. Save these in a folder on your computer so you don’t need to do the same thing next time – this will save time in future.

Ditch your work phone:

Leave your work phone at home! You’re entitled to your holiday and to spend time with your family, you shouldn’t have to keep one eye on your children and another on your work emails. Everything can wait until you’re back and if you leave your work in a good place someone else should be able to deal with any issues that arise.

Put on your out of office:

This is an easy one to forget but it’s probably the most important. Put on your out of office so anyone who emails you understands they won’t get a reply until you’re back. Then, if their query is important they can call the office and talk to someone else who can help.

Set a rule on your Emails:

In Outlook you can set a rule for any inbound emails to automatically get copied to another person. You can also set a rule that means only specific emails get forwarded to your colleague/manager. For instance, if you’re expecting an important email from a specific client, you can set a rule that a copy is also sent to your colleague, who is covering your accounts whilst you’re away.

Most importantly…

Enjoy your time off, you deserve it 😊