How to (Actually) Unplug from Work on Vacation

Whether you’re a frequent flyer or you’re taking your first trip in years, seeing the date looming closer to your vacation is enough to give anyone that thrill of excited anticipation. But, sometimes, that countdown comes with another, entirely different feeling: anxiety.

While some folks have no problem slamming their laptop closed and saying “see ya” until they return from their time off, others don’t have such a luxury. Instead, no matter how much they’re looking forward to their PTO, some employees worry about how many Slacks they’ll still have to answer, or how many emails they’ll come back to. 

The result? What should be a time to leave work behind and unwind becomes a trip with random check-ins and “emergency” calls. 

When it’s so important to disconnect from work and take real breaks, this just won’t do. 

As you plan your next block of time away, here are a few things you can do to make sure you actually unplug from your job and fully enjoy your vacation. 

Why You Need to Disconnect

You may think putting down your work and using some of your vacation time is just something nice to do. But that R&R does so much more for you than give you good memories and some photos from your social pages. 

Remote Work Opens to the Door to Poor Boundaries

When everyone worked in an office, you shut down your screens, packed up your things, and went home, leaving your job metaphorically behind until the next morning. With the rise of remote work, blurred lines have left some employees unable to really separate work and personal time.

While several countries are giving workers the right to disconnect, plenty still lack laws that prevent employers from contacting them after hours. Vacation time is sometimes one of the only chances you have to take a complete break from your role.

Burnout Comes on Fast

By the time you start to feel burnt out, it’s often too late to prevent the effects from shifting from “tired” to “too exhausted to function.” While you may take PTO and head out on what should be a relaxing trip to stave off those feelings, it’s all in vain if you don’t actually disconnect from your daily tasks. 

Your Loved Ones Deserve Your Full Attention

Imagine you’re enjoying a nice dinner with your family on vacation and have to excuse yourself for the third time that day for “just a quick call.” Not only is still taking work calls or answering emails counterproductive to your time away, but it’s disruptive and rude to those you’re on vacation with.

You Give Others a Chance to Learn

Especially if you’re in a leadership role, you may think, “What if someone messes things up while I’m gone?” or “I’m the only one who can handle this.” 

How does it do your team – or the business – any good if everything rests solely in your hands? Actually unplugging from work gives the rest of your team the chance to learn how to manage certain tasks and responsibilities and keeps you from bearing the weight that comes from being a single point of failure.

Now, you can have every practical reason to really leave work behind while you’re on vacation. However, without the right action, it means nothing – so here are small but impactful things you can do to ensure you actually unplug.

Your Checklist for Disconnecting from Work

Forget the excuses you give yourself for still wanting to be available to your team when you’re out. Let’s make sure the only thing you have on your mind is you, your fellow vacationers, and what adventures you’ll include in your day.

1. Tell Everyone About Your PTO Early

No one can say they didn’t mean to call or email you while you’re out if they know you won’t be available. 

About a month before your trip, remind the people you work with that you’ll be out of the office for a specific period. This can include your manager, direct reports, cross-collaborating teams, clients, or suppliers. 

2. Prep Your Projects

Gather all documentation, links, and notes related to any projects you’re working on that someone else will have to manage while you’re out. 

Create a detailed plan that assigns specific responsibilities to each person so everyone knows exactly what they should be on top of. If there are particularly large or important accounts that have a lot of context, consider getting everyone together to lay out those details on a call or in person.

3. Define “Emergency”

Anyone who has worked in the corporate world knows that the term “emergency” means something different to everyone. 

Before you offer to be available for emergencies at all, go through the members of your team who would be able to address a less-than-ideal situation that could occur while you’re out. If you’re still willing to be available for a crisis, clearly define what you consider one to be so you’re not contacted about something trivial.

4. Plan for a Catch-Up Day

A big reason you might check in on work while you’re on vacation is so you avoid coming back to 517 emails. While going through all of those in one sitting is tedious, it’s worse when you need to get other tasks done or attend meetings on top of it.

Instead of doing daily email checks, block off the morning—and maybe early afternoon—of the day you’re back online so you can catch up on your messages without being interrupted or having your attention required elsewhere.

5. Set a Clear Out-of-Office Reply

There’s a dark joke that Americans will have an email auto reply along the lines of “OOO getting open-heart surgery, so I’ll be out for two hours. Call my mobile at…” As funny as it could be to imitate, don’t do this.

When setting your out-of-office response on your email, make it crystal clear that you’re on vacation, and include what days you’re out and when you’ll return. Close it out with something that professionally but definitively says the sender won’t get a response until you’re back. If necessary, include a person they can go to with time-sensitive matters.

6. Don’t Pack Work Devices

“Oh, but the kids will use my laptop to watch movies.” “I’ll only check my work phone once a day.” No!

When packing up for your trip, leave laptops, mobile phones, and other work devices off the checklist. Even if you say you won’t use them unless it’s an emergency, they tend to provide too much temptation. If something at work truly needs your attention, you can use your personal mobile.

7. Sign Out of the Apps

If you have work-related apps, like Slack or your email, on your phone, sign out of them before you leave for vacation. Similar to the work devices, they provide too much temptation, even if you turn off notifications. You can even take it one step further and delete the apps from your phone entirely until you’re back.

8. Do Things That Actually Relax You

Okay, you’ve made every attempt not to think about work while you’re away. Now what? 

Plan activities that actually let you blow off steam. That may be a day of sunbathing on the beach or getting a massage. It could also be hiking or ziplining. Whatever helps you reduce tension, make sure you bake it into your itinerary. 

9. Go Somewhere Without Service

If you’ve tried everything to disconnect from work to no avail, there’s one last thing you can do: book a vacation where no one can reach you. It can seem a bit extreme, but your mental health is too important to not have a truly unplugged vacation. Whether it’s camping in a remote forest or a safari in the brush, that lack of wifi makes it pretty easy to unplug from work. 

What do you do to ensure you can enjoy your vacation worry-free about work? Tell us in the comments!