Vacations are a breath of fresh air from our daily routines. Taking time to rest is extremely necessary on a physical, cognitive and emotional level, since our daily activities usually mark such a fast pace of life that, at times, it is very stressful. These overwhelming routines not only refer to the paid or unpaid work of adults, but also to the academic activities of young people, or the school and extracurricular routines of children.
Fortunately, the holidays imply a great opportunity to do everything that we usually put aside during the rest of the year: practice our favorite hobbies, spend more time with family, plan a trip, sleep in, among others.
However, the reality is that at some point we will return to routine. This rehabituation to daily activities can be difficult and distressing sometimes and even reaching post-vacation stress; more than anything taking into account the fact that, during the holiday season, our habits could contrast too much with the routine to which we must return or have already returned.
In this article we will develop 6 tips to return to a much more harmonious routine after the holidays and thus make this task easier.
1. Ask yourself questions
A good place to start is by asking ourselves some important questions before returning to the routine or even if we are already in it. It is normal to feel discouraged about returning to daily activities, even more so if we have had a good time during the holidays and we don’t want them to end. This is because routines handle a faster pace of activity than vacations It is not bad that it is so. However, if we consider that at work or university we tend to feel exhausted, perhaps it is a good idea to ask ourselves questions when returning to routine to identify what it is that exhausts us and what actions we can take to build a life more in line with what we do. that is important to us. Here we propose some:
The questions outlined in the previous advice can be of great help to be clear about what we want for ourselves when we return to routine. And it is that The return to everyday life is usually a turning point or bankruptcy for people This is not necessarily a negative thing. In fact, quite the opposite: it is a great opportunity to pivot towards a life worth living if we are not already heading in that direction; It is an opportunity to ask ourselves questions that are worth stating and reevaluating from time to time.
However, to move towards a place that is in line with what we want, we cannot just ask ourselves questions and remain abstract: we need to design a concrete plan of action to get us going. In order to create one, it is convenient to take the questions we have asked and prepare a list of specific behaviors that materialize what matters to us. It is important Be as detailed and specific as possible when outlining these goals
For example, if after the holidays we have realized that we want to adopt a healthier lifestyle because we want to be able to accompany our children to activities that require good physical condition, perhaps say “I will go to the gym four times a day.” week to get in shape” is a plan that will end up being inefficient. We must write our plan in the fine print, with tasks that can be done right now in the short term: “this Tuesday, right after lunch, I will go to the gym and stay there for forty-five minutes.”
3. Divide the task into smaller ones
Once back to the routine of our chores, We may have to meet deadlines at work, college exams, or school assignments However, returning to our jobs after the holidays is not always easy. It may happen that we find it difficult to study the same number of hours that we used to study before, that we procrastinate our homework, or that the word count of the report we must write does not increase, no matter how long we stay in front of the computer.
Therefore, a strategy that can help us be more efficient is to dissect those large tasks such as “write a report” or “study the same thing as before” into small tasks that we are able to achieve. In line with the advice above, it can be helpful to adopt the mindset of being as specific as possible when describing such small tasks (even if it seems like we are teetering on the edge of absurdity in doing so). For example, we could divide writing the report into tiny steps that will put us into action, such as: “sit in a comfortable place to work,” “separate the two stacks of files that I need to write and leave them on the desk,” “ work for 30 minutes, exclusively on the introduction”, etc. The same with studies, it is better to study 3 hours every day with 10-minute rest intervals in the library than to postpone it until tomorrow and the month goes by and you haven’t started.
4. Eat the frog!
This striking expression is the title of the book by Brian Tracy, a successful Canadian writer specialized in topics related to personal development.
“Eat the frog!” is about a productivity strategy whose function is to distinguish our priority tasks of the day, separating them from those that can wait It is important to focus on solving the former instead of the latter. Although it doesn’t seem like a good idea, most of us fall into leaving the most important thing for last. However, the risk we have when carrying out this strategy is that at the end of the day we have not completed the most important thing we had to do.
Therefore, “Eat the frog!” It encourages us to eat the frog first thing in the day, that is, that difficult and priority task that we tend to postpone again and again. Starting with that task doesn’t have to feel good (in fact, it tends to be quite uncomfortable), but in the long run, we will be optimizing the time we dedicate to certain activities, if increasing our efficiency is important to us after the holidays.
5. Set a bedtime
Maintaining good sleep hygiene is a habit to prioritize in our lives.
Sleep hygiene involves a set of practices that precede the moment of going to sleep, as they impact the quality of our sleep and rest This includes activities such as having a light dinner, putting down your cell phone before bed, avoiding caffeine and intense exercise late in the day, and, of course, having a set bedtime. This last aspect is often neglected during vacations in favor of leading a more flexible lifestyle. It is good that this is the case—since, in part, this is what vacations are for—but returning to routine, it is necessary and important to set a time to go to bed and thus preserve a good rest.
6. Be patient
Ultimately, we highlight the importance of being patient with oneself when returning to routine, since This process can be complex and exhausting even following the advice we have developed in this article There is no recipe capable of ensuring that our return to our routine after our vacation will be effective, quick, or the same as it used to be before; but we insist on the fact that this hinge point can open the way to new opportunities and even improve our habits and lifestyle.
