Welcome back to weekend coffee chats, where we discuss different topics from life as a young professional in corporate all the way to businesses, social media, books, and coffee. We ask questions and dive to learn, so grab your favorite beverage and join us.
This week let’s talk about small things to help us survive that first week back to the work and the office especially after December and early January holidays.
After every beautiful spring comes the inevitable cold and breezy fall. So after the fun and relaxation, welcome to the new year, may the odds be ever in your favor. Jokes aside, getting back to work after time off is challenging enough, but after Dec. it’s something else completely. So I’ve summed up below the stuff I’ve learned along the way from colleagues and from what has worked for me, for you to use or for us to collectively cry about.
- Schedule something fun for that first weekend, you’ll need something to look forward to
- Get yourself a drink you like, coffee, tea, boba, or whatever cheers you up and make sure you have it with you.
- For emails, since majority of us suffer from those:
- Focus on emails sent 2-5 days before you came back
- Anything older than the 2-5 days, you can skim the titles and topic. If it’s a file/task/ project/feedback needed add it to your to do list, anything else archive it in a “vacation” folder
- I know the folder sounds silly, but in case you do end up needing any of those archived emails it will be quicker to find them rather than your general archive
- Talk to the colleagues you work closely with, especially if you were each off on different days. This way you’ll become aware of what’s urgent, what important changes or meetings happened, and will help you skim those emails faster. Since you now have a context of what’s important vs what’s not, rather than guessing in your emails
- Do not expect to finish things that first day, that’s a recipe for disaster. Block your calendar for either 3-5 days with slots for each of the important tasks and/or projects
- start working on that short-listed tasks and/or projects list
- try to avoid meetings or call requests for the first week, as those take up a lot of time that you’re going to be short on. Suggest a day in the upcoming week, or ask them to send an email for you to check and get back to them
- if you are back physically to your office, try to schedule a few lunches with colleagues. This will help cheer you up and remind you their’s more to work than the emails and the endless deadlines
- if you’re still working remotely, try to schedule a few coffee catchups with colleagues / work friends
- Once that’s done, cleanup your folders system for the upcoming year. Archive your 2021 folders and create 2022 folders and trackers based on your needs
- Decide on whether you’d be following an electronic notes system, a written checklist, or a mixture of both for this month / year. I’ve been switching back and forth on this and realized it can easily turn into a nightmare. For Jan I’ve decided to use written checklists for day to day tasks that I don’t need to think about later, but a new notes tracker for anything I might need to come back and search for. Will keep you posted if this structure helps or the nightmare continues.
- In case you use Sharepoint and/or your team has separate files for each year, ask for the 2022 files links and save them to your favorites. This will save you the trouble of constantly asking for links the first few weeks
So far that’s worked for me, except for the “pending a reply emails” which I’m always torn about what to do with them that won’t lead me to forget them, any ideas?
What are your must-tips for surviving that dreaded first week back to the office? Would love to read about it in the comments!
Don’t forget to follow “@weekendcoffeechats” on Instagram to get notified when a new post drops. Till next time 🙂 !
Disclaimer: None of this information is to be used as advice, it’s just for entertainment purposes. Additionally, all information used is publicly available.
Weekend Coffee Chats 