How To Have A Stress Free Holiday

Look forward to a stress free holiday this year with these great pre-travel tips.
Part of striving towards a work life balance is to take a stress free holiday without feeling anxious or apprehensive about your workload. Sometimes you come back from a holiday needing a holiday – what can you do to ensure you are relaxed and free from stress and pressure? Here are five tips to go away on annual leave, avoid holiday stress and come back to work with a post holiday buzz that lasts longer than holiday romance.
Delegate your work
The chances of having a stress free holiday are enhanced by having the peace of mind that everything is under control at work. Depending on the length of your holiday, ask your boss if a trusted colleague can cover you at work. Update your manager on the status of your work, whether they need to follow up on any projects and ask them to nominate someone who can make decisions on your behalf while you are away.
Get organised
Before you leave for your holiday, allocate time to cleaning your desk, filing your paperwork and making your office free of clutter. In the last hour before you leave, set your out of office message on your email software and also put an out of office message on your telephone. In your email and phone messages, let the person know who they should contact in your absence to try and avoid a barrage of messages when you return.
Plan ahead
The earlier you book and plan your holiday, the more likely you are to get the best deals on hotels and travel and the best choice of quality accommodation and better travel times. It’s great to get a cheap flight for $59 but it might be false economy if you’re getting up at the crack of dawn to catch the plane and starting your holiday on a tense note. It may be better to pay more and get a more convenient flight time.
Set work boundaries
It can be tempting to check your work emails when you are away on holidays but the whole idea of getting away is to escape from the rigours and stresses of every day work. Leave your laptop at home or go to a region with limited Internet access so you will have no choice to enjoy your holiday in the way you intended. Alternatively, set work boundaries and only check your emails once every day for half an hour only.
Easing your way back into work
It can be a culture shock to come back into work after a relaxing holiday and be confronted by numerous emails and phone messages and a high pile of paperwork. Another way to avoid post holiday stress is to set your email auto-reply to say that you are returning one day after your actual start date. This allows you a one day buffer to try and get organised before you resume your normal work routine again.
They say no one is irreplaceable but when you’re the boss, you’re the only one who performs your role in the company or you work in a small team, sometimes you feel that you can’t take holidays without worrying about your workload and your other team members. But with adequate planning and organisation, you should be able to take a stress free holiday and leave the workload and the worries behind.