8 Things To Do When You Return From Vacation
Photo by Simon Migaj on Unsplash
Do you want to have great vacations? Of course you do! I’ve never met a single person who goes on vacation to have a bad time.
However, most people unknowingly compromise the quality of their vacations by failing to think about what happens when they return back to their day-to-day lives. Going from the beach back to the office can be a jarring change of pace, so you need a plan. Because no matter how great your trip is, how you finish your vacation will leave a stronger imprint in your mind about the quality of that vacation as a whole.
When asked about the quality of their vacation, I’ve recently been hearing people say this phrase: “I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation.”
Maybe you’ve said something similar to this. While many factors contribute to this feeling, such as overcrowded itineraries and a higher percentage of travel days per vacation than in the past, one of the leading determinants of feeling unrested and unaligned after a vacation is neglecting your re-entry strategy.
The eight steps below are not the entire playbook for re-entering day-to-day life after a vacation, nor are they in the exact order that will render them entirely applicable to your life.
Instead, these are suggestions that you can take and craft into your own time-tested strategy.
The next time you get back from vacation, have a plan in place for how you’re going to end it. Failing to end your vacation well is similar to failing to pack on the front end. The results are unhelpful and often disastrous for your trip.
1. Write a Thank You Note
Chances are high that you typically go on your vacations with at least one person, if not more. Maybe you’re in that small percentage that actively travels by yourself, but even then, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a vacation that wasn’t influenced by someone at some point.
One of my favourite small celebrations I like to practice as soon as I return from a vacation is to write a thank-you note, most often to the people I traveled with.
Sometimes I’ll get crazy and write a thank you note to someone who did a kind act for me or my group while we were on vacation. Maybe it was the condo owner we rented from or the ski instructor who patiently taught us the fundamentals as we stumbled through the slopes like first graders.
Writing a thank you card as soon as you return from vacation helps you remember that your vacation wasn’t necessarily all about you. No one expects a thank you note after your vacation, so it’s a great opportunity to make someone’s day.
2. Leave at Least One Review Online
In tourism and vacation businesses, online reviews are unbelievably valuable. The tourism industry is crowded and competition is fierce. Every company is looking for an edge and is constantly looking for a way to make their products stand out.
Online reviews and ratings are one of the best distinguishers of those companies.
How many times have you looked up a restaurant, an excursion, an Airbnb or hotel and looked at their ratings online? So many people like to take advantage of the reviews but dismiss the idea of leaving a review themselves.
Let’s change that. When you get back from vacation, consider leaving one review for the company you enjoyed the most.
3. Celebrate the Good Memories
Have you ever noticed how easy it is for good memories to fade?
Most vacations I’ve been on seem long on the front end and very short on the back end. If you’re like me, you may get to the last day of your trip and ask, “where did the time go?”
For longer or more complex vacations, I am a huge fan of keeping a travel journal and writing down short summaries or highlights of each day. But if that is too much or too complicated, consider creating a moment towards the end of your vacation or when you return where you can celebrate the good times from your vacation.
A vacation is as valuable as the memories you create. So celebrate and engrain the good ones.
4. Unpack and Unload
There is a window on the front end and the back end of each vacation that is still considered semi-vacation. When you come back from your trip, you have a short window where your brain and body are still in vacation mode before you get back into the swing of your daily rhythms.
Finishing a vacation includes the unpacking and unloading duties. Your trip isn’t really completed until that work is done. If you don’t unpack and unload within that post-vacation window, you run the risk of having a full suitcase still sitting on your floor 2 weeks after you get back from your vacation.
5. Balance Your Budget
For some of you, the word “budget” just made you start breathing faster. I’m an advocate of budgeting as a practice of life. But even if you don’t have a budget that you’re sticking to or a way that you're tracking your spending, it still could be a good idea to take inventory of your spending after you get home from a vacation. Here’s why.
Vacations are amazing opportunities to capitalize on the savings or money you have. Often, vacations are celebrations and moments for you to go somewhere new, see new places, and make new experiences. But like most new things, vacations can be expensive.
Hopefully, you planned ahead for your trip financially, but even if you didn’t, taking an inventory of your budget on your return can give you an idea of where you’re at financially in light of your spending.
6. Take a Deep Breath Before Jumping Back In
I mentioned this above, but there is often a small window on the front and back end of a vacation where you are still in semi-vacation mode. One of the worst mistakes you can make when you come back from vacation is jumping right back into the deep end of the busy spectrum too quickly.
Think of this period of time like a scuba diver who is coming up from the deep water. If you are a diver, you know that one of the most vital pieces of advice is to go down slowly and to come up slowly. That’s because you need to acclimatise to every level of depth going down and coming up.
Divers who come up too quickly are at risk of a condition called the bends, where the pressure outside is less than the pressure inside your lungs. Similarly, when you come back from vacation, often there is a discrepancy of pressure on your outside vs. your inside. So take the healthy option and ease back in after your vacations.
7. Capitalize on the Momentum of Being Rested
If your vacation is restful and you’re coming back to your regular days of feeling content and at peace, make sure to capitalize on that momentum.
In your day to day life, it can be tricky to drum up the motivation to make that call, reach that goal or start that project. So when you feel like you have a good wind at your back, make sure to take advantage of that.
If you feel that good momentum at your back when you’re coming home from a vacation, check your re-entry pace and jump into the motion of what your rest and time away have given to you.
8. Look Towards Your Next Trip
When you get back from a vacation, take a few days to soak up the joys and realities of what you just got to experience.
After a few days, when you’re stepping back into the grind of day to day life, start looking at and dreaming about your next trip. Use the fuel of your last trip to push you towards your next. This is the best way to become a serial traveller, a grand adventurer, and a passport stamp collector.
Finish Well
‘Starting something can be easy, it is finishing it that is the highest hurdle.’ — Isabella Poretsis
Travel is meant to be fun and enjoyable. Vacations are often meant to be rewards for accomplishments, hard work, or opportunities to connect with loved ones and friends. When you don’t finish your vacation well, you put all of the positive feelings of a good vacation in jeopardy.
So make a plan. Try things out. Be purposeful about how you re-enter and come back down to earth from a great vacation. If you do it well, you’ll find that you not only loved your travels more than before, but you’ll be on the lookout for more vacations in the days ahead.
Travel well and finish strong.
View the original article on medium.com here.