When you have a million and one tasks on your plate, work-related stress can spill over into the holiday period. To make the most of upcoming long weekends, it is crucial for employers to plan their work ahead, and consider helping their workforce meet deadlines too, giving everyone the chance to recharge over the bank holiday(s).
Adam Butler, workplace solutions expert and CEO of Officeology, shares his top tips on how to make the most of the long weekends:
Create a ‘priorities list’
If you work in a fast-paced job, you are probably already familiar with to-do lists. Take it a step further and the week prior to the bank holiday create a ‘priorities list’. Schedule these tasks throughout the week to ensure they’re all completed. This helps you have a clear and realistic overview of time-sensitive projects that need to be completed before the holiday.
Block time out for your priority tasks
Encourage employees to use time blocking for time-sensitive tasks. Using time blocking ensures you have allocated time to complete all of your priority tasks. Time blocking is the holy grail of getting things done as this tactic allows you to minimise interruptions and distractions. If possible, silence any unnecessary notifications on your laptop to avoid being interrupted.
Set a cut-off date for accepting new tasks
If you do not have one already, set a cut-off date for accepting new non-urgent work tasks. This will allow you to finish all the priority tasks in your list stress-free. Let your co-workers know about your workload and inform them in advance of your cut-off day and time. Then make sure that all the tasks that come your way after your cut-off time are either delegated to a co-worker that has the availability to complete them or gets prioritised upon your return from the bank holiday weekend.
You can even set up a daily cut-off time to make sure your workload doesn’t spill over into overtime. Setting a cut-off time for non-urgent work also benefits your mental wellbeing and helps reduce the risk of feeling burnt out or overwhelmed.
Be prepared for the unexpected
Regardless of your plans, things might not go the way you planned them. As you are facing multiple short weeks one after the other, there may be some unexpected urgent tasks that land in your lap that you can’t complete before the bank holiday.
Make sure to communicate to your manager that you will not be able to complete the task before the bank holiday weekend. To help you switch off from work before going on your long weekend make sure to write a to-do list for your first day back so you know everything can be sorted upon your return and not during your time off. This will allow you to fully recharge over the bank holiday(s).
Workplace Wellbeing Professional is an online magazine featuring news and analysis on a broad range of employee wellbeing topics, focused on a UK based audience.