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09/12/2025
The holiday's over. Your alarm goes off, and for a solid three seconds you forget where you are, what year it is or why anyone would voluntarily leave bed. Then it hits you. Work exists… and you have to go back.
The jolt of returning isn't a personal failing. Your nervous system spent weeks in rest-and-digest mode. You slept when you wanted, ate when you were hungry and moved at your own pace. Then suddenly, life is all alarm clocks, deadlines and meetings that could've been emails. Your body registers this shift as a threat. Not a tiger-chasing-you threat, but enough that your cortisol spikes, your sleep goes sideways and your brain keeps trying to negotiate its way back to the holiday. You're not lazy or unprofessional. You're just a human being whose brain got used to not being in fight-or-flight mode for a minute.
That said, the work isn't going to do itself. So, here's how to make the transition less brutal.
Your first day back shouldn't be your first day thinking about work. A few days before, nudge yourself towards routine. Set your alarm a little earlier. Get dressed in something other than a tracksuit. Check your calendar (but not your emails) to see what’s coming. Think of it like stretching before a run. You wouldn't sprint immediately, so why cannonball straight into full work mode?
Before you even set foot in the office, book yourself a treat. A massage, a facial to hold onto that holiday glow, a manicure that makes typing emails feel slightly glamorous. It’s not indulgence! It’s maintenance. You service your car, right? Your body deserves the same attention, especially when you’re shifting gears from holiday mode to work.
First day back, your only job is to show up and triage. You're not solving world hunger. You're not even solving last Tuesday's problems. Sort your emails. Skim the urgent stuff. Let people know you're back and easing back in. If you need an extra coffee, take it. If you need to decline that optional meeting, decline it. You're not being lazy; you're being sustainable.
Mornings set the tone for the day. Before you open your laptop, do something that feels like the holiday version of you. Brew your coffee like a ceremony, splash cold water on your face or blast your holiday playlist while getting dressed. It doesn't have to be life-changing. It just has to be five minutes that aren't about output or performance.
What felt best about your break? Was it morning walks? Reading before bed? Cooking actual meals instead of reheating leftovers at 9pm? Pick one thing, just one, and commit to keeping it as an anchor. When work gets chaotic (and it will), this one habit reminds you that you're still the person who took that break. It doesn't have to be big. Even five minutes of something that feels like a break can reset your nervous system mid-week.
Someone at work went to Bali. Someone else went on a yoga retreat and found themselves. Good for them. You watched TV and maybe left the house twice. Also good. Rest doesn't have a scoreboard. If you feel even slightly more human than you did before the break, it worked.
You need a plan for when it gets overwhelming. Not if. When. Because at some point this week, you're going to hit a wall. Maybe it's a passive-aggressive email. Maybe it's back-to-back Zooms. Maybe it's just Wednesday. Know what you're going to do. Take a walk, close your laptop for ten minutes or blast music in your car. When your brain is melting, you won't have the bandwidth to figure it out.
Even with all these strategies, the first week back is going to feel off. You'll be tired for no reason. You'll resent things that didn't bother you before. You'll question every decision. It’s not a sign you did something wrong. It's just re-entry.
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