“Recovering from vacation and getting back into the zone at work is what’s top of mind for me today, so I thought I’d share a few ideas that might be useful for you the next time you return from being out of the office for a while.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 202
What do you do? Do you have any tips or tricks that have helped you to quickly and productively recover from a vacation break?
Join the conversation below and feel free to share your thoughts!
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. If you’re a regular listener to this podcast you know that I’ve been out on vacation for the last two weeks and just got back. Recovering from vacation and getting back into the zone at work is what’s top of mind for me today, so I thought I’d share a few ideas that might be useful for you the next time you return from being out of the office for a while.
The first thing I try to do, and somehow forgot this time is to set my Out of Office message to indicate that I’ll be returning the day after I actually get back. I usually do the same thing with my calendar and block my first day back. That way, at least in theory, you get a day that’s relatively free of meetings, interruptions and people expecting to hear back from you to get through all of your emails, get organized and in a place where you can be relatively proactive when you officially return – rather than having to spend a couple of days in all out fire fighting mode trying to get caught up.
Then, if you’re anything like me, the first big task is tackling all of that email. I came back to just over 1200 messages, which isn’t too horrible considering I was out for a full two weeks. I’m sure the Out of Office message I had setup helped reduce the volume as well. I’m a daily inbox zero guy, so having 1200 messages to contend with feels pretty daunting, but I see this as an opportunity, and if you’re not the inbox zero type, but aspire to be the same opportunity exists for you as well. Having this volume of emails helps me see what really matters and what doesn’t. It allows me to more clearly see what types of newsletters and other services really add value. It also becomes really clear who’s just sending me too much email. The unsubscribe link becomes my friend and helps make future Scott’s inbox that much easier to manage.
From there it’s all about digging into the real messages. Invariably this is going to create an action list. I use a tool called Todoist to manage that list and what I love about Todoist is I can both select due dates for tasks, and I can also easily drag things around within a given day to place high priority items at the top. For me, the key is to avoid the feeling of overwhelm, which would sort of defeat the purpose of having had a nice break to refresh and recharge. Going through and getting organized this way helps me clearly see what requires immediate attention, and what can wait a few days. It’s also fun to watch issues resolve themselves and not require an action after all.
With email out of the way, it’s time to check in with my boss and my colleagues who were covering for me. Here I want to capture anything that I didn’t already pick up in my email triage, and then it’s on to my pipeline. What moved and what didn’t while I was out? Which conversations and opportunities do I need to prioritize so that I don’t lose any more momentum from a deal flow perspective.
With all of that done. It’s basically time to crank and execute against that prioritized action list I’ve built for myself.
That the gist of my approach. What do you do? Do you have any tips or tricks that have helped you to quickly and productively recover from a vacation break? I’d love to hear it. Feel free to add a comment at DailySales.Tips/202 or just send me a note directly at [email protected]
Thanks for listening and be sure to check in tomorrow for another great sales tip!