Oh, it’s not easy to return to work after the holidays. And it doesn’t even matter whether you went to distant or close countries, or spent the entire holiday at home. If it’s now difficult for you to get into an active work mode, then my recommendations will help speed up this process and reduce stress levels. Accept that any change in activity (environment) requires adaptation. Resisting new things is normal for our brains. Accept this and don’t call yourself lazy, indifferent, apathetic, a procrastinator, and God knows what other “wonderful” names that worsen your mood, but don’t change the essence of the matter. Leave yourself a day or two for restructuring. If possible, return from vacation at least a day before going to work. During this time, you will be able to return to your normal life, adjust your sleep and wakefulness schedule. This extra day can be used to unpack suitcases, do household chores, buy groceries for the week, and get yourself “combat ready” (hair, manicure, wardrobe). All this will save time during the week, and you will be able to devote yourself only to work processes. Increase the amount of work gradually. Your assistants: planning, time management and work rationing The transition to everyday work should be smooth. You haven’t met an athlete who goes to the Olympics from the very first day. Constant training with increasing loads usually leads to victory. Preparing for competitions is a gradual and systematic process. Our brain, and our body, need time to switch. Making a plan for a week (a month or even all twelve) is a good start to the year. When I received my first economic education 25 years ago, my favorite subjects were “Labor Standards” and “Ergonomics”. Labor rationing allows you to estimate the labor intensity of work (the amount of work performed by an employee over a period of time). Try not to plan the maximum number of meetings and tasks in the first days. Your task is to start the work process, and not to drown in it. If your manager sets tasks for you, discuss with him the priority of tasks and plan things according to urgency and importance. Of course, for creative professions and today’s freelancers, no one has yet calculated the norms, but you You must take care of this yourself and allocate the optimal execution time for each task. There is no need to complete the “five-year plan in one week.” This will add stress to you, and procrastination will save you from stress (yes, yes, this thing, condemned by many, is designed to preserve our physical and mental health). Fill your new planner or spreadsheet with tasks and to-dos evenly. Be sure to include rest in this plan. Rest is an integral part of work-life balance. If the word rest does not motivate you, but on the contrary, I suggest replacing it with the word “recovery.” To work effectively, you always need to recuperate. Even batteries! Why are we worse? :)) Make the workplace comfortable and cozy It was ergonomic specialists (and psychologists after them) who established that human productivity is much higher in a comfortable and convenient space. The first working days are just the time when you can reorganize and transform your workplace a little: take care of comfortable and practical furniture, purchase tools, gadgets and programs that are as easy as possible to use, taking into account all your features. Remove excess papers and books from your desk, sharpen pencils and replace non-working pens, throw away the garbage that has accumulated in 2022, wipe your desk and equipment from dust, clean your mail and delete unnecessary files. By the way, the cleaning process itself helps relieve anxiety and lead to get your thoughts in order. Remove New Year's decorations from windows and computers (don't let them set you up for the continuation of the holidays). The best solution would be to put on the table a photo taken during the holidays. Studies of the human brain show that we react to imaginary events in almost the same way as toreal events. This means we can have a much stronger influence on the brain. Look at the photo more often, and let warm memories help you realize that you had a good rest and are ready for work. Bring a small flower from home, place it next to your workplace and tell it to grow quickly all year round, be strong and stable, like yours career and income :)) Metaphors and visualization are good helpers even for skeptics and rationalists! Arrange a lunch to exchange impressions with colleagues The worst thing you can do at the beginning of the work week is to ignore lunch. The body is accustomed to eating regularly during the holidays, and if this “suddenly” does not happen, then the feeling of hunger will quickly ruin your mood. And you’ll quickly run out of energy. It’s a good idea to invite your colleagues to eat together. Firstly, food is more enjoyable in good company. Secondly, over lunch you can chat with colleagues informally. Joint gatherings strengthen the existing team, and help establish communication in a new one. You may even find common interests and hobbies with someone, and this is the foundation of future friendship. Ask your colleagues about how they spent the holidays and tell us about your impressions, findings, discoveries and new experiences. Focusing on the pleasant and interesting will help to revive wonderful moments of relaxation in your memory (and maybe in your body). And for our psyche this is almost the same pleasure as was received in reality. Practice micro-sport. If you sit down at your desk on the very first day, your body may not like it, and it will give you a signal about this with pain in which -any place. He needs movement. Introduce micro-sports into your workday. Do several squats in the office or toilet (if you work in an open space), push up from the wall, clench and unclench your palms into fists several times, stand on your toes 100 times. Do exercises for your eyes and feet (even under the table!). You can come up with a lot of movements. The main thing is to want to. By the way, returning to lunch... Invite your colleagues to walk to a new cafe or restaurant. This will add movement to your muscles and reduce the concentration of stress hormones. You'll change your surroundings and get some fresh air. Plan something nice after work. During the first week, you shouldn't stay up late at work. Think better about where you can spend an hour or two before returning home. This could be ice skating, meeting friends, going to the movies, or any other activity that is guaranteed to be enjoyable. Knowing that something pleasant will happen to you in the near future will improve your mood during the day and add strength. Anticipation is an effective way to increase the number of positive emotions in life. And this will never be superfluous. Important! If you not only have a hard time getting into the work process in the first few days, but for at least two weeks you experience a persistent reluctance (disgust, rejection) to return to work, don’t want to wake up or get out of bed already tired, you don’t sleep at night and you think about work problems, and during the day you have a headache, some colleagues irritate you, and clients are indifferent, you feel driven into a cage and do not see how you can find a way out of it - this may be a sign of professional burnout. To find out if it exists you have and to what extent, take the free test “Diagnostics of V. Boyko’s level of emotional burnout”. The link to the test is below. If the test results show a lot of red, my advice is not to delay and seek help from a consulting psychologist. At a minimum, it will help relieve emotional stress. As a maximum, you will understand the cause of your condition, discuss ways to recover, accumulate resources to change something in your personal life and career. Maybe it’s time for you to change this job? This is also useful to do from time to time! Trust a former recruiter and HR with 15 years of experience! ☺How was your return to work? What helps you adapt? In Taplink https://taplink.cc/life.balance_blog.