Create a Vacation Prep Plan So You’ll Enjoy Your Time Out of the Office

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to taking time off for a weekend getaway or a family vacation is your job and its responsibilities. How can you leave work for a period of time? Will everything still run efficiently without you? How can you possibly enjoy time off if you are worried about the massive amount of work you’ll have to deal with once you get home? The key is to have an office organizing plan in place. Try these strategies from your NYC Professional Office Organizer.

Give warning. In order to avoid the big headache of rushing around last minute, make sure to give your employees, coworkers, and other colleagues fair warning that you will be taking time off. This allows you to delegate your workload with enough time to give explicit instructions to your team and allow them to ask as many questions as needed. The more prepared they are before you leave, the less they will need to reach out while you’re gone! Set up a detailed out-of-office response for your voicemail and your email providing contact information for the staff member who will be the point of contact as well as your expected return date. Do yourself a favor – set your message to share that you will return one day after you actually plan to return to the office. This will give you some time to catch up on emails yet to be read, events that occurred in your absence, and to get back in the swing of things.

Prioritize projects and wrap up unfinished business. Make note of those projects that don’t have an immediate deadline and that can be worked on upon your return. Don’t worry about those now! Try to wrap up as many of those unfinished projects and tasks on your to-do list as you can. This way there will be less loose ends to worry about while you are away and will make the transition back to work much easier! Schedule time in your schedule to tackle tasks before you leave. Clean out your inbox, responding to what needs a response, filing, and forwarding as needed. If you can’t finish something, make notes about where you are in the process, so it’ll be easier to pick up where you left off.

Clean your desk and office. Whether you have a desk in a small cubicle or a big corner office, the last thing you want to see when you return is a cluttered, messy workspace! So, take some time before heading out to put everything back in its place, file information that will be needed, and discard/shred paperwork that is no longer needed.

Create a back-to-work to-do list. Those projects that can wait and those tasks scheduled for later in the month might be all but forgotten while you are enjoying time off. As you get closer to your departure date, it’s inevitable that more items will pop up that will need your attention, too. Start a post-vacation to-do list so that you don’t forget anything that needs to be done when you return.

In order to successfully step away from your business for a period of time requires organization, preparation, and communication. Make sure to take some time to organize your workspace, prepare your notes and plans for while you are away, and communicate openly with your team so that you have everything covered. The most important thing – enjoy your time off!

For more office organizing strategies, reach out to your NYC Professional Office Organizer today.