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Love vacations but hate the stress of returning to work? We’ve got you covered.

by | Aug 5, 2024 | Business Optimisation, Process Improvement

Decorative image - The featured image for the Solvaa blog post "AI-tomation: How Zapier is using AI to make automation easy Part 5 - Wrapping up and looking forward"
Taking a break from the daily grind can be refreshing, but the thought of returning to a mountain of work can be daunting. If you’ve ever found yourself dreading your first day back at the office, you’re not alone. Thankfully, with some forward planning and clever automation, you can make your return to work smoother and more productive. Here are some practical productivity tips to ensure a stress-free transition from vacation mode to work mode.

 

1-2 weeks before you go away

 

Delegate decisions to trusted team members

One key to maintaining momentum while you’re away is effective delegation. Identify team members who can handle decisions in your absence and brief them thoroughly. This allows projects to continue seamlessly and ensures that critical decisions aren’t delayed. Trusting capable colleagues with responsibility will keep things running smoothly and prevent a backlog of decisions awaiting your return.

 

Set up email forwarding rules

Once you know who your go-to people are for each project or process, create forwarding rules for your inbox. For example, route project-specific enquiries to the project manager and customer service queries to the support team. This not only keeps your inbox manageable but also ensures timely responses to critical communications. It’s important to let your teammates know if you plan to forward emails to them while you’re away, so they’re not caught off-guard. If you’d like more information how to set up email forwarding rules, check out our previous blog post: Inbox Zero? Inbox hero!

 

Notify your team and stakeholders

Don’t let your out-of-office surprise your team or clients. Inform everyone of your planned absence at least a week before you leave. Send a reminder with the exact dates you’ll be unavailable and who they can contact in your place. This reduces any confusion and sets clear expectations for everyone involved.

 

Leverage automation with Zapier

Zapier can be your best friend when it comes to quickly getting back up to speed when you get back. Before you go, create Zaps that trigger on project updates such as task completion, updates, and comments. Configure these to compile into a digest format and set a release step to summarise these updates. When you return, you’ll have a neat summary of all activities and pending actions waiting for you.

 

If you’re not familiar with Digest by Zapier, it allows you to add information to a store (the digest) and release it either at a specific time/day or when as an action in another Zap. It’s useful if you want to collect information over time then send it back to yourself. You can learn more about how it works with this help guide from Zapier. For added zing, you can run the digest contents through ChatGPT and have that summarise the contents with a list of action items for you. Here’s a couple of example Zaps that you might want to try:

 

  1. Slack (New mention) ➝ Digest (Append Entry and Schedule Digest)
  2. Asana (New comment) ➝ Filter by Zapier (only continue if the comment has your name in it) ➝ Digest (Append Entry and Schedule Digest)
  3. Notion (Updated database entry) ➝ Digest (Append Entry and Schedule Digest)

The above Zaps will add the information from their respective apps to a digest. You can choose to add the information from different apps into a single digest, or keep them separate and release each digest separately. Choose based on whether you’d like all of your updates in a single email, or if you want to have different digests based on the different apps that you use. The Zap outline below shows how to set up a Zap that will release your digest on a specific date, run it through chat GPT and then send that information to yourself via email. If you use Slack, you could switch out the last step for a ‘Send Direct Message’ action, and send yourself the digest that way.

 

 

A screenshot showing the outline of a Zap. The Zap steps are 1. Google Calendar (Event Start) 2. Digest (Release existing digest) 3. ChatGPT (Conversation) 4. Gmail (Send Email)
 

The day before you leave

 

Block out your calendar

Reserve the day you return for catching up. Block out your calendar to avoid meetings and set aside time to go through emails, project updates, and essential tasks. This uninterrupted time is crucial for a productive and stress-free reentry.

 

Tidy your desk for a fresh start

Before you leave, take a few moments to tidy your workspace. Clearing your desk can have a surprisingly positive impact on your mindset when you return. A clean, organised space will help you feel ready to tackle your to-do list without the added stress of clutter.

 

Create a to-do list for your return

Make a list of tasks to address when you get back. We all like to think we’ll be able to pick up exactly where we left off, but often the haze of a holiday leaves you struggling to remember what tasks need addressing. On your list, include any catch-up tasks you’ll have (e.g. checking your emails), your regular or ongoing tasks, and any bigger tasks with looming due dates that you’ll need to address. Creating a to-do list before you leave will help you hit the ground running.

 

When you get back

 

Manage your email inbox efficiently

On your first day back, your email inbox might look overwhelming, but these productivity tips will tame it in no time.

 

Start by deleting unnecessary emails. If any notification emails and newsletters slipped through the cracks of your filters, delete them all before you do anything else. This will give you a better view of what you do need to deal with.

 

Use tools like Google Gemini or Microsoft Co-Pilot to summarise the remaining emails. These AI tools are great for providing concise overviews of messages, saving you from trawling through endless threads. Don’t forget that Outlook also has a great feature called ‘Conversation Clean Up’ feature, which looks at long email chains and removes duplicated information. Check out this help guide from Microsoft for more information.

 

Sort your emails into items you need to action asap, things that can wait, items that you need to check-in with someone else to handle and emails that are useful information but don’t require action. Use folders or labels to move emails out of your inbox as you categorise them, so you can easily see what you’ve dealt with and what requires your attention.

 

Review your Zapier digests

Your Zaps will have delivered you a handy summary of what happened while you were away. These summaries will highlight key updates and actions needed. Once you’ve read them, you can use the information to set your priorities for your first few days back.

 

Reconnect with project leads and clients

Finally, touch base with project leads and clients to get up to speed on any developments. A quick check-in will ensure you’re aware of any immediate concerns and allow you to reassess priorities based on the latest information.
 

Summary

Vacations are meant to be enjoyed, not overshadowed by the dread of returning to work. By following these productivity tips, you can minimise the stress of catching up and jump back into your workflow smoothly. Proper delegation, automation, and pre-planning ensure that your projects continue seamlessly in your absence, and you return to a manageable workload. Enjoy your time off knowing that you’ve set yourself up for a successful and productive return.

Solvaa: Strategy, Solutions, Support, Education

UK-based Solvaa® is a systems, process and automation consultancy specialising in improving business workflows. Solvaa® works with SMEs worldwide to implement digital tools, better processes, use business process automation and generative AI to boost productivity, enhance lead management, and remove unnecessary time, costs and hassles from stretched business owners’ days.

We help you simplify and streamline existing processes, integrate your business tools to make data transfer more efficient, and automate manual tasks. Our business process automation specialists have extensive experience using multiple cloud-based business tools, including Zapier, Pipedrive CRM, SmartSuite, Xero, Google Suite, ClickUp, Asana, Airtable, Hubspot, Active Campaign, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Quickbooks and many more. We are Zapier Certified Experts, SmartSuite Certified Partners, Pipedrive Certified Partners and Xero Certified Advisors. We also educate teams about using AI in their daily roles, mindset, governance and strategy in our Solvaa AI Academy.

Solvaa® was founded in 2016 by Kelly Goss, a no-code solutions architect, business process automation specialist and author of Automate It with Zapier (first edition) and Automate It with Zapier and Generative AI (second edition).

A thought leader on business process automation and digital adoption, Kelly attended an invite-only Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the UK government at No.10 Downing Street, providing insights and recommendations on how SMEs can benefit from productivity gains by using digital technologies, automation and AI. She has also been invited to speak at the House of Lords and at many other events.

Contact us today to find out how Solvaa can help your business make big savings on operational costs and time, and significantly increase productivity.

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