Holiday Vacation Exit Strategy: How To Take A Break (Beth Kanter blog post)

Community Discussions
#1

The holidays are upon us! Personally I will be holding the fort on behalf of the @namati_network team, and will be available an hour or two a day here on the forum and community@namati.org email. So do stop by to say hello! :sunflower: If you are planning to take a break yourself, I’d like to urge you to read these tips from Beth Kanter to help you to make the most of it.

Don’t worry! You won’t miss anything important and get too far behind, and you will return to work more creative, energized and resilient. The key message is to shift your perspective so you come back rested and recharged.

Here are a few GREAT new ideas I learned today from reading Beth’s post:

  • Some people put on a pre-vacation bounce message. Make sure you remind people to get their requests to you a few days before the office closes to the holiday so you can get back to them or get that task done.
  • Add a few days to your out of office bounce message, so when you come back, you won’t feel obligated to respond to everything at once.
  • If you must read email: Try not to respond, just read and focus on deleting and clearing out. More tips here.

Thanks @miaschmid for bringing this great post to my attention!

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#2

thank you for the message, its part of lifeskills people must have to fit in this global community especially those in public service delivery programs/projects.

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#3

Thanks for the reply, @Agapewo! You are right that service delivery organizations in particular have to be mindful and realistic about the need for time off, despite the pressures to be present and available to those in need. As Beth indicates in her blog post, it’s not impossible and just takes a bit of clever planning, and a shift in perspective.

As a result we will be able to do better work as service providers because we’ll be happier, more rested, more connected with our families and in touch with ourselves and our personal priorities.

So I hope you decide to take some time off yourself over the holidays! :fireworks:

… and do it properly by setting the vacation autoreply on your email - and don’t reply until you come back! :seedling: