Can you make the post-vacation return to work less overwhelming?

Can you make the post-vacation return to work less overwhelming?
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

I realize that a lot of people aren’t necessarily going away on vacation these days, but hopefully we’re all taking some time off to rejuvenate and refresh.

The inevitable return to work, and catching up on everything that happened while you were out, can be quite daunting.

  • Are there things you could be automating to reduce that stress?
  • Can you build systems that will make it less difficult to get back into work mode? 

Over on the Zapier blog we have an article that provides some ways to catch up on work after a vacation, but we’d love to hear from YOU!

Have you created any automations that make it less overwhelming to come back from vacation?

 

Please let us know in the comments below!


4 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

1 Zap I use is to send new website leads coming in via a form an autoreply email managing their expectations of when they can expect a reply from me.

 

Zap Steps

  1. Trigger: Webflow - Form Submission
  2. Action: Gmail - Send Email

 

Hope someone else finds this helpful!

Userlevel 1

I don’t know about everyone else, but when I come back from vacation to an avalanche of e-mails, Slack messages, and more - I always find myself in “what actually needs follow up” paralysis. I’m inclined to handle ALL THE THINGS… and all at once. And then I’m freaking out, not actually doing anything, or totally miss the boat on prioritization. Oof.

While they aren’t fancy Zaps, I’ve found setting up a few Zaps that send bookmarked/starred/flagged items to Asana (or the task manager of your choice) where I can then prioritize and spread out over my return has helped tremendously. I’m not missing any critical tasks and I’m not finding myself in the usual follow up paralysis.

Userlevel 5
Badge +6

I like to include an online calendar link in my auto-responder so people can schedule for when I get back. Having some of the tasks planned automatically is less overwhelming and helps to get back on track more efficiently.

Userlevel 1

What we find works really well is to set an automation that reassigns your work to your colleagues while you’re away.

For example if you use Google Calendar and Jira, you can integrate both with Out of Office Assistant for Jira. You only have to do this once for every workstream. For example, say you are working on reviewing pitches for investors. Then, you can create a Zap that only works on the stuff that you are asked to review on a specific project. The pitches will be reassigned to whoever you decide. For example, your manager or another close colleage.

The rule will activate every time you block time off on Google Calendar, and will start reassigning pitches that are ready for review to your manager. When you’re back, you can check in Jira which pitches were reassigned and what’s their status.

You can also create a catch-all rule that reassigns every new issue that is assigned to you while you’re away. This is less sophisticate but in many cases is what’s works.

I’d be happy to know how folks are solving this issue! Please reply below if you want to talk about it.

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