This article from the blog of Denise Landers, founder and CEO of Key Organization Systems Inc. and a Paper Tiger Expert, offers helpful tips for getting organized and clearing your desk before going on vacation. She suggests that treating every Friday as if you were going on vacation might also be more productive for you. Denise also recommends Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management for paper files in the office.
If you were heading off for a two-week vacation this coming weekend, what would you have to do now to get ready? It is amazing how productive you can be in clearing your desk, in-boxes, and your calendar the week before a vacation. Of course, that often means you will be working longer hours each day until then, but the payoff is in sight.
You may try to complete your part of larger projects. You would probably want to clear away all those little details that you’ve been setting aside “until you have the time.” Home chores also need to be taken care of, such as making arrangements for any pets, notifying neighbors about your absence, and arranging for your personal mail to be held or picked up.
With the pace society is maintaining, it is no surprise that vacation time used has decreased over the past several years. As you strive to balance diverse activities, it can seem impossible to break from that cycle. You feel indispensable and worry about what will happen in your absence and how much will be piled up on your return.
Instead of being excited as your vacation date approaches, you might become anxious and more stressed. It can take two or three days after you leave to unwind and begin to relax.
The ideal way to handle a vacation would be to have no contact with your office or business associates during that time, using your email and voicemail to inform people you are out of town and when you will be back. After all, that is fundamentally what defines a vacation.
However you may find that you worry more when you do not know what was going on. If you feel that you need to stay in touch, I suggest that you try not to respond to business calls on your cell phone throughout the day. Those calls can interrupt you during a pleasurable activity with family or friends and change your mood.
When you deal with business concerns, you mentally place yourself back in work mode, so limit those times. If some contact is necessary, try using email once a day and make phone calls in the same period. This way you have set aside a single block of time for business-related issues. Otherwise constant contact defeats the point of having worked so hard beforehand to get away.
When coming back to the office, take a day to de-stress. Do not have a string of appointments booked. You need that time to process mail, catch up on the latest happenings, and return calls.
You may not have the luxury of a two-week getaway. U.S. employees tend to be more vacation-deprived than other countries. That does not mean that you should not take some time to relax. Even with a three-day weekend, try to limit your involvement with work-related issues during that period. By taking a break from the everyday stresses, you will find that you are actually more productive when you return.
Regardless of your vacation plans, proceed with this week as if you were going away. You will be surprised at how much you accomplish in clearing your desk during these next few days and how much better you will feel on Monday. If you continue to do this, those extra hours you put in before your ‘vacation’ will decrease each week. For more tips on vacation preparation, read “5 Tips to Help You Relax and Recharge.”
Ask yourself, “What do I have to do today to be ready to leave for vacation on Friday?”
About Denise Landers
Key Organization Systems Inc.
Author of Destination Organization
productivity@keyorganization.com
Have you ever tried to “get organized” only to be frustrated after a day, or a week, or a month? Destination: Organization recognizes that reaching your organizing goals is a journey, not a one-time event, as you develop processes to cope with daily demands that constantly change. For help, call Denise at (281) 397-0015
Denise shares her experience and expertise in developing effective, efficient systems to deal with daily workloads and to cope with periods of rapid growth, helping businesses and individuals accomplish more through effective office organizing systems. Her education background in human services lets her tie in the business aspects with individual personalities to produce a unique model for each situation.
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By Denise Landers
Key Organization Systems, Inc.
If you do not have vacation time blocked off on the company schedule now for the end of the year, do not despair. It seems everyone wants to have the holidays off, yet when we submit our annual vacation request, we may be turned down. If you are glum over the prospect of limited holiday time off, console yourself with what you will actually be facing:
Throughout the year, it is easy to be swept up by the crisis du jour. You may be responding to constant interruptions, multitasking all the time. There is often no opportunity to pause for thinking and planning. More involved projects get set aside for a “better” time when you can concentrate. Many times these delayed activities are the most “important” projects, the ones that will actually make a difference. However since they did not have a deadline or an “Urgent” tag attached to them, they were shuffled aside.
Here is your chance to catch up. Rather than joining the throngs at the airports, jostling through overcrowded stores, or fighting for a spot on the lift line, enjoy the opportunity that is presented to you in the office.
What can you do that would make you feel energized for the new year? After catching up on key projects, look around and see where organizing could help you be even more productive. Areas to examine:
Daily Systems: Do you have an effective system for handling all of your daily incoming items? A good system will allow you to easily prioritize each day and ensures that you will never overlook and opportunity or miss a deadline.
Desk: Only what you use on a regular basis needs to be close to you. Remove the accumulation from the past year.
Email: When was the last time you zeroed out your inbox? Set up folders both for daily action items and for reference files.
Filing: Are your file folders stuffed and drawers overflowing? Clean out unused, unneeded items. Do you hesitate to file anything because you will never find it again? A good program to help with that is the Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management.
When you find yourself at the office during those holiday lulls, enjoy the peace and look forward to another time when you really need a break. Hopefully it can be a time without peak fares, overbooked resorts, crowded slopes, and too many obligations. Meanwhile you are organized and ready for a productive new year!
Denise Landers is the author of Destination: Organization, A Week by Week Journey and the owner of Key Organization Systems, Inc. As a national speaker, trainer, consultant, and writer she provides clients and audiences with the time management training tools and techniques that improve daily work flow and increase productivity.
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