5 ways to survive the return to work

Aside from a lucky few who have extended the festive period by using some of their 2016 holiday entitlement, most of us have been slammed back into reality following Christmas. You’ve had IT reset your passwords because you’ve forgotten them and you’re already pining for the weekend.

Writing for The Guardian, Hannah Jane Parkinson has put together a list of tips to get you back into the swing of things and get over the post-holiday blues.

Relearn the basics
Remember the days when you’d go back to school after the summer holidays and found you’d forgotten how to hold a pencil? You may experience the same feeling on your return to work. Your grown-up office clothing feels constricting after a week of jeans, tracksuits, or even pyjamas. Take a bit of time to get back into your usual groove – and don’t forget to laugh off the little things.

Stop daydreaming
Past research has shown that a large number of people look for new jobs in January. We’ve all had those post-Christmas daydreams of moving to an exotic country and leaving it all behind for some far-fetched job. The reality is most likely that you like your job and will never leave to become a professional basket weaver. The earlier you drop the daydreams, the easier it is to get back to your normal routine.

Don’t overuse the new year greeting
It happens in every office: you come back after the holidays and everybody wants to wish you a happy new year and find out how you spent your time off. You’ll end up having the same conversation 50 times on your first day back. Perhaps you can be the one to break the mould and not ask your colleagues the question.

Organise your inbox
By this, Parkinson means you should delete unread emails from 2015, so long as they’re not important. They’ll be so old at this point that they’re not worth it and you really don’t want to be going through them at 4pm when you’re struggling to stay awake and need something to take your mind off that huge project you’ve just been assigned.

Don’t be hard on yourself
You’ve just had nearly two weeks of doing whatever you wanted to and not having too much responsibility. It’s now full-on winter – it’s cold and it’s dark – so none of your colleagues are enjoying the slog into the office. There’s every chance you won’t do any meaningful work for the first couple of days. Just don’t be hard on yourself if it happens.

Read the original article at bit.ly/1JSWPie