How to Overcome Procrastination & Improve Your Productivity After Vacation
After a long and satisfying summer spend relaxing and adventuring, the turn of fall signals that it’s time to be productive again. But how can you be productive when you forgot what motivation feels like? All you’ll be thinking about is how good your vacation was and how good it would be to go back to those carefree days on the beach. We all know the struggle.
With such relaxing vibes, it can be hard to fit it the work atmosphere, but there must be something you can do to overcome procrastination, right? Well, that was a rhetorical question!
In today’s post, we’re sharing several steps to diminish or eliminate your procrastination moods and to improve your productivity after a long vacation.
Practice mindfulness
The practice of mindfulness has become one of the most popular types of meditation in the past years. But what is so special about it? Well, it’s about being present and focused on what is happening in the moment; the NOW.
It’s about observing your thoughts, emotions and actions in the present moment and about figuring out the roots of them. The beauty of this meditation stands in the observation of the fact that you forget to live in the present moment as you’re caught up in either your past or future, if not both.
So, that’s maybe the best thing you can do to boost up your productivity within minutes after a long, relaxing, and hard-to-forget vacation. You’ll also be able to effectively focus on your work and prevent your thoughts to fly away on various moments from your vacation.
Personally, I have been practice mindfulness every day for a year now. Before I started, my focus was poor due to the anxiety I had developed. Obviously, my productivity was decreased. Mindfulness was actually my salvation from that black period of my life, and that’s when I realized how much good a simple thing can do in someone’s life.
Take it easy
Usually, after a relaxing vacation, people tend to feel a little left behind or like they have so much to catch up with their work. This happened to me during a stressful time for the company I was working for. No matter how many tasks I wanted to tackle, it seemed like it would never be enough to catch up.
Luckily, my wise supervisor told me to calm down, take my time and not to overwhelm myself from the first day of vacation, as otherwise, I won’t be as productive and efficient as I typically am for a long time.
We all can be overwhelmed with our work after we take some time off but working too much is not the solution. You must work smart and give your best; remember, quality over quantity is always better and much more appreciated.
Take a break
If you want to be as productive as possible after your vacation, I suggest you take as many breaks as possible. You see, during your time off, your ability to stay focused for quite a long period of time has decreased.
Many people think that one week off can’t do any damage to their skills, but they are not totally right. The ability to keep your focus on a single task more than 10 to 30 minutes can be easily damaged without daily training.
Every time I came back to work after any break longer than 3-4 days, I kept noticing that I couldn’t stay focused as much as I managed to before. First, I kept pushing myself, but I only ended up decreasing my efficiency and productivity. It kept happening until I did my research.
I realized that this phenomenon is quite normal and the best thing I could do is take a lot of short breaks while I work. This tip was a life-changing move for me since I started to truly implement it and getting back to work after a long break is never as hard as it used to.
Take care of yourself
Unfortunately, we always tend to neglect ourselves. Even if it happens rarely, it still happens. When you start working again, it would be ideal to take care of your basic needs better than ever. First of all, make sure you reorganize your sleeping schedule. Try to sleep at least 7 hours per night. Without a good night sleep, you’ll barely be able to make it through the first day.
Secondly, keeping yourself well hydrated is also extremely important, as is a healthy diet and physical exercise. Nobody will be able to ruin your good mood, not even your stressful work.
Taking care of yourself is extremely important especially if your vacation wasn’t so relaxing. If you spend all your free days exploring places and using all your strengths to walking, make sure you’re giving yourself some rest before you end the vacation. This will ensure that you have enough power to deal with your return to work.
I suggest that every time you plan a vacation, take an extra day off to rest. Sometimes the road might be too long and exhausting, the train/plane might be delayed or something else unexpected may happen.
Conclusion
Vacation time is important and you should use your vacation to take your time and relax as much as you can, so you can have a fresh start and be even more productive than before. Remember. If your mind keeps recalling those relaxing free times, it’s just because you allow it.
Stay in the present moment, stay focused, take as many breaks as you need, do not overwhelm yourself with too many tasks, and you’ll be able to manage this change of atmospheres better than you can possibly imagine.
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About the Author Jack White
Today, Jack White is an excellent writer who has worked his way up from the bottom. He is currently working in the department of PR at Essays.ScholarAdvisor and has great aspirations to continue his success in the future. Follow him on Twitter.
