The key to taking time off without falling behind (Guest Post)
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
This week I’ve got a guest post from Emily Roner over at Prialto. I’ll let Emily take it away:
In a typical year, mid-November would be spent finalizing holiday travel plans and activities. Even though this year will be different, taking extra time off to entertain your kids while they’re on winter break or to relax and reflect can provide the mental rejuvenation needed to head into 2021 with renewed energy to achieve your goals.
Regardless of your plans, preparation is key to enjoying your time off without falling behind at work. Here are some steps you can take now to minimize stress whenever you go offline.
Plan As Far in Advance as Possible
While it can be easy to take off a day or two on relatively short notice, planning longer absences as far in advance as possible can dramatically reduce your stress before and during your time off.
Here's how:
It lets you get ahead on high-priority projects, so you don't have to worry about falling super behind while you're offline. Being ahead allows you to enjoy your time off more since you don't have urgent items on your work to-do list.
It lets you find, and if necessary, train colleagues to cover for you. Knowing that you have someone capable of tackling your time-sensitive responsibilities while you're away can be a huge anxiety-reliever.
So, if you're hoping to take an extra week or two around the holidays to do fun activities with your kids or others in your pandemic bubble now is the time to start planning.
What happens when you can't plan?
While planning time off in advance is ideal, it's a good idea to know what to do if you have to take off suddenly due to a personal emergency.
When you don't have the luxury of getting ahead, spend your time preparing someone to cover for you. Depending on how much time you have, this can include a lot of different activities such as:
Forwarding emails from clients and other external contacts so your team can respond on your behalf
Adding status updates in your team's task management tool
Sharing drafts of what you've been working on
Sending out any other information that helps your team pick up where you left off
Prioritize What Activities You Do Before You Go Offline
Often, the most stressful part of taking time off is getting ahead of your workload. This issue is exaggerated now if you're dealing with extra caregiving responsibilities and/or are working on a team that's understaffed due to budget constraints.
Regardless of your situation, if you're taking a week or more off, getting all of your work done in advance can be unrealistic. Instead, focus on tackling your top priorities and pushing back or pausing projects that aren't as essential.
If all of your work feels like a high priority, you can narrow your to-do list by considering these criteria:
Time-sensitivity. If a project deadline is during your absence or shortly after, make it a priority before leaving. Otherwise, plan to complete it when you return.
Ease of delegation. If it's challenging to delegate a task because you're the only one on your team who has the skills to do it successfully, make it a priority. Otherwise, ask a colleague to tackle it while you're gone and offer to return the favor the next time they go on vacation.
Once you have a list of projects, you're going to complete before you leave and ones you're going to finish when you return, run the plan by your team. This allows them to suggest swapping the timing of some of your tasks.
Set Expectations…with Everyone
If you've ever been inundated with work messages while on vacation, you know how important it is to set expectations before taking time off. Having conversations to get aligned with everyone you work with can prevent your absence from holding them back and them from expecting responses while you're offline.
This includes:
Your manager. If you haven't already had a conversation with your manager about expectations during time off, talk to them as soon as you plan your PTO. You need to find out if going completely offline is acceptable or if they expect you to respond to urgent messages while you're out.
Colleagues. Once you know the extent that you'll be able to go offline, set appropriate expectations with your colleagues. This allows them to get anything they need from you in advance.
Clients and/or other external people you work with. If you have a colleague who will support your external contacts while you're out, send a simple email introduction, so they know who they'll be working with. However, if no one is covering for you, set expectations with them regarding your responsiveness and availability.
Having conversations in this order tends to work best but, depending on your role and the pre-defined expectations you have, you may take a different approach. The key is that you’ll work this everyone in your work sphere to get aligned on what's expected of you while you're gone.
Start Planning Your Next Vacation (er…Staycation)
While, right now, you may not be able to travel far or visit the kinds of places you'd typically enjoy, there's a tremendous benefit in going offline for even just a few days. If you haven't already, consider planning your next vacation as a staycation and start taking steps now to set yourself up for success.