whether it was a vacation you looked forward to all year, or an unexpected break from work, coming back to your desk after time away is not as easy as it sounds. i give you two strategies for combating the dislocation that can happen, all through the lens of jet lag!
resources:
blog post on shut down routines
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Whether you're just coming back from a break or about to leave for one. Let's talk about how to ease back into your work when you get back. On this week's episode of
📍 Welcome to Grad School is Hard, But... A Thrive PhD podcast. I'm Dr. Katy Peplin and this is a show for everyone who's doing the hard work of being a human and a scholar. And in season two, I'll introduce you to various tools that might make the hard stuff from writing to managing your time to taking care of your brain just a little bit easier.
And make sure you check out the link in the show notes for a brand new summer planning template, all available for you for free. Now. Let's get into it.
I'm a big fan, as you probably know, if you've listened to this podcast of taking a break and sometimes those breaks are super intentional, like time off in the summer. Or a vacation or time off in between terms. And sometimes they're a little bit less intentional. Like when you have to go away unexpectedly because of a chronic illness or an emergency, or just a sickness that you didn't predict.
And I talk a little bit about that in a blog post that I've put in the show notes, but whether you want to weigh on purpose or it was unplanned, you then do have to deal with the inevitable coming back. Now. I love coming back to my desk. Usually. If the break was long enough and I got enough rest and recovery points in the old system, I often am really excited to come back, but that doesn't mean that my brain and my body are totally in sync when I do. . So in this week's episode, I'm going to share some of my theories about how you can tackle this little bit of brain, body dislocation when it comes to being back at your desk.
I approach coming back to your desk a lot. Like I approached jet lag. Or that sense of time dislocation when you travel and arrive in a location, that's a different time zone from where you started. Now, if you've experienced jet lag, you know, that it is a mind body phenomenon. And I truly believe that transitioning back to work after time away is the exact same thing.
So there are two different ways that you can deal with jet lag. But either way it's going to happen. And whether you're traveling cross country or around the world, or coming back after a break. But I want to normalize the idea that very, very few people I know am hopping into their desk chairs the day after vacation wide eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go with no sense of kind of weirdness or sluggishness jet lag happens. You can prepare for it. You can shift your schedule, you can try and sleep while you're traveling. You can take a sleep aid and you're still going to be a little bit off and it's the same way with work.
When you get back to your desk, no matter how well you planned and prepped to be a way you're going to be a little bit off when you get back. And that's okay. So there are two strategies that I use to try and deal with the sense of just location when it comes to being back at my desk. And the first one is the similar to a way that I handle jet lag, which is trying to get my body on the schedule of the place where I wanted to be in this case, my work routines.
This is a common strategy for dealing with jet lag. Like I mentioned, You do your very best to keep your body doing the things that it should be doing. And it's new time zone. So if you fly and suddenly it you've lost a whole day, you might try and stay up until bedtime, even though you missed a night of sleep.
You might try to eat meals around mealtime. Your brain might not be fully there, but you just adjust the body as much as you can. And hope that the brain follows. In a return to work context. This looks like trying to keep your schedule. So you get to your desk. When you want to, you keep your meetings and you worry a little bit less about your brain following suit.
You do what's possible and your body helps to guide your brain back into work mode. So you might show up at your desk at the appointed hour, nine or 10:00 AM. You might check your emails. You might noodle around on the internet. You might make sure that your files are backed up. You might do any of that kind of fluffy admin work that sure. Isn't the big stuff. But the goal on that first day of the trip is just to try and adjust to the jet lag.
And the goal on that first day back is just to try and get your body where it wants to be. Strategy too. Is to worry a little bit less about the schedule and focus on the tasks. Sometimes you get to your new location in a jet lag context and staying up or keeping a schedule, just isn't an option. When I was in grad school, my dad lived and worked in London. And when I would fly from California or from Michigan to visit him most times I would try really hard to stay up and beat the jet lag. But sometimes probably two or three times, I just crashed out. I got to his flat, I fell asleep for eight hours.
It's not ideal. But it's what my body needed at that particular time. In a work context, this looks like identifying the most important task or to. And working on that, no matter when or where you can get to it. So if you know that you really need to get that syllabus finished up this week so that you can send it to your department, you don't really care if you do it hat 10:00 AM like you would ideally do. Or if you work on it from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, because that's when your brain feels like it's ready to function.
You worry less about the schedule. You'll get there eventually. And you focus on the tasks and stuff.
Either way in either situation. I really encourage you to give yourself time to adjust. If you are planning a really big trip, you save for it, you plan it. Ideally, you're not going to do the most important things. The things that you're really most looking forward to right away when you land, because jet lag will make it harder.
If you can't wait to visit that museum and you do it straight off the plane. Chances are you're going to be at least a little bit dislocated, if not full, improper suffering. So it's the same way. If you're getting back to work.
In the same way, if you're getting back to work and there's a way to avoid it, warming up with some adjustment days can be really helpful before you launch into the most important stuff. I often spend the first day back catching up on emails, doing some planning and getting things organized. If I tell myself the day after time away.
That. Okay. You must arrive at your desk five minutes before the appointed time drink one cup of coffee and then do the hardest thing on your list. When I am already feeling a little bit weird, a little bit off. That's a sure fire away for me to spend that whole day being annoyed and frustrated.
And it's very unlikely that I'm going to get that writing done. I know though that the second day is a little bit better. And the third day's a little bit better too.
Basically all of this boils down to no matter how you left or how long you've been gone coming back to work as a transition. And transition's always go a little bit more smoothly when you support yourself through them, rather than wishing you weren't going through it. I know there are very few things that I can just think my way out of and that post vacation slump is one of them.
So, if you need to reread the whole chapter that you were working on to get oriented. I do it. If you need to plan a half day and then take a nap in the afternoon planet. If you feel. The way that you feel that first hour back is not the way that you're going to feel forever, but it is the way that you feel in that moment.
I encourage you to support it and be open to it. Changing. And if this is the kind of advice that you're looking for, or if someplace with a little bit extra support. Fun and excitement sounds like a great way to ease back after your first half of the summer. And I encourage you to check out summer camp. We are starting our fourth session on June 26th, but you can join us every other Monday.
As we are going to be going all summer long. So, if you're looking for something with a little bit of support to help get you back to that desk, after some expected or unexpected time away, we would love to have you. And make sure you use the code podcast for 10% off. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you next week.
📍 Thank you for listening to Grad School is Hard, but... You can find more information and resources in the show notes and at thrive-phd.com. Every month, I'll select one reviewer for a free 45 minute session with me. So please subscribe, rate, and review to help spread the word about the show. Thanks so much and I'll see you again soon!