Prepare for the Post-Vacation Paradox

A big thank you to December for giving us reasons to close shop at the end of the year — for a few days or even weeks.

The reasons are compelling and easy to communicate: “I value personal time," or “Business will be slow.” You probably don't need to say, “It’s a government holiday.”

Your Q4 plan of action is almost complete despite a compressed seasonal calendar, with five fewer days than last year. It made an already busy month more hectic. (If you're not using the 4-5-4 retail calendar, a late Thanksgiving Day in the US will get you every time.)

I hope there's some personal time in your future. How do you think you'd feel coming back to work? Refreshed? Energized? Focused?

Use this to help you prepare:

🧭 Four Pillars of Merchant Method: The out-of-office process
📚 Merchant Skills: Refocus after a break
✏️ Your Assignment: Follow a process that works
📌 Bulletin Board: Make the most of your time away

🧭 FOUR PILLARS OF MERCHANT METHOD
Take a healthy approach to personal time off

This guide focuses on the Process pillar to ease the transition between your work and personal life.

New to the Merchant Method or need a refresher? Get oriented.
 
📚 MERCHANT SKILLS
Five steps to mitigate the post-vacation paradox 
The post-vacation paradox describes feeling drained, unfocused, and/or unmotivated when you return to work despite an expectation that you should feel recharged and refreshed.

Whether or not you've heard of this, you've experienced it. But that can change:

1. Add buffer days: Give yourself time on both ends of your break to wrap up and jump back in without overworking.
   
   
2. Set expectations with others: Add your extended out-of-office dates to your email and calendar notifications.
   
   
3. Prioritize your open items: Is everything you want to wrap up urgent or time-sensitive? What can wait for when you come back?
   
   
4. Draft your start-up list: Before you leave, create a list of tasks and open items so you can pick up where you left off.
   
   
5. Change up your space: Refresh your sales floor and website, prep for annual inventory, and reorganize your work area. This will help you kick start January, the last month of fiscal Q4.

✏️ YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Make your return-to-work plan

​Commit to an execution plan and put it in your schedule. At a minimum, complete steps three and four before you close for the holidays.

📌 BULLETIN BOARD
Make your workload manageable
 
Listen to an interview about How Independent Retailers Reset and Regroup

Stop Overworking After Vacation by Darin Rowell and Kandi Wiens for Harvard Business Review

How Do You Cope with Your Post-Vacation Workload? by Michael Hyatt for Full Focus