{"id":829,"date":"2022-06-01T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T21:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/?p=829"},"modified":"2022-12-29T14:22:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T21:22:41","slug":"just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/","title":{"rendered":"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Just<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It can be overwhelming to return from even a short vacation to an overflowing inbox. I brace myself before checking my email. How do you deal with the overflow upon your return? Do you stem the flood by checking and responding to messages during the holiday?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, you have already set an out of office message to tell people that you are away and will reply when you return to work. So you have set expectations that it will take a while before they get a response from you. Well done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, give yourself one whole day to reply to your messages and one whole week to complete your action items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as you can\u2019t unload, unpack, do your laundry, prepare a meal and settle back home all at once, you can\u2019t reply to all your messages and check of your to-dos in an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some lessons learned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Don\u2019t schedule an early morning meeting on your first day back at the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Give yourself at least half a day to sort through your emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Read the most recent emails first because some problems\/issues could have been resolved by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Delete all unnecessary emails \u2013 the longer you\u2019ve been away, the more ruthless you should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Prioritize responses needed today, tomorrow, this week, and next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the best advice I have is to give yourself a buffer zone of half or one day to get back into the swing of things. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It can be overwhelming to return from even a short vacation to an overflowing inbox. I brace myself before checking my email. How do you deal with the overflow upon your return? Do you stem the flood by checking and responding to messages during the holiday? First off, you have already set an out of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32],"yoast_head":"\nJust back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos? | Project Manager Coach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The best advice I have is to give yourself a buffer zone of half or one day to get back into the swing of things.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The best advice I have is to give yourself a buffer zone of half or one day to get back into the swing of things.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Project Manager Coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wanhowconsulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wp.how.1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-01T21:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-29T21:22:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation-1024x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wan How\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Wan How\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Wan How\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/person\/a17807f09b1cd5da101fd4c803ef888b\"},\"headline\":\"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-01T21:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-29T21:22:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/\"},\"wordCount\":257,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation-1024x1024.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Popular\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Project Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/\",\"name\":\"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos? | Project Manager Coach\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation-1024x1024.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-01T21:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-29T21:22:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"The best advice I have is to give yourself a buffer zone of half or one day to get back into the swing of things.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation.jpg\",\"width\":2400,\"height\":2400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/\",\"name\":\"Project Manager Coach - Wan How\",\"description\":\"Lead Projects with Confidence. Grow as a Leader. Deliver Strategic Results.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Wan How Consulting\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/466236_final.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/466236_final.png\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":1800,\"caption\":\"Wan How Consulting\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wanhowconsulting\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/wanhow\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/person\/a17807f09b1cd5da101fd4c803ef888b\",\"name\":\"Wan How\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99ea50e562eb2821598e1d4e8190a80f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99ea50e562eb2821598e1d4e8190a80f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Wan How\"},\"description\":\"Wan How is a career coach specializing in helping project professionals advance their careers. In his project management career, Wan successfully rescued many troubled projects. These included turning around projects headed for failure within 30 days and compressing project timelines by half to deliver benefits in one year instead of two. Wan has over twenty years of project management experience in traditional, agile and hybrid approaches. As the leader of a Project Management Office, he led a team of project managers and business analysts to deliver corporate projects tied to the organization's business plan and strategic objectives. He has worked in the information technology, government, higher education, oil and gas, and engineering sectors. Wan is a graduate of Cambridge University. His areas of expertise include project management, IT management and facilitation. In addition to the PMP, Wan is an Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP). He has also attained the Certified Professional Facilitator with the International Association of Facilitators.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wp.how.1\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/wanhow\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos? | Project Manager Coach","description":"The best advice I have is to give yourself a buffer zone of half or one day to get back into the swing of things.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos?","og_description":"The best advice I have is to give yourself a buffer zone of half or one day to get back into the swing of things.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/","og_site_name":"Project Manager Coach","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wanhowconsulting","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wp.how.1","article_published_time":"2022-06-01T21:05:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-29T21:22:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation-1024x1024.jpg"}],"author":"Wan How","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Wan How","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/"},"author":{"name":"Wan How","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/person\/a17807f09b1cd5da101fd4c803ef888b"},"headline":"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos?","datePublished":"2022-06-01T21:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-29T21:22:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/"},"wordCount":257,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation-1024x1024.jpg","keywords":["Popular"],"articleSection":["Project Management"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/","name":"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos? | Project Manager Coach","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation-1024x1024.jpg","datePublished":"2022-06-01T21:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-29T21:22:41+00:00","description":"The best advice I have is to give yourself a buffer zone of half or one day to get back into the swing of things.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220601-Just-Back-from-Vacation.jpg","width":2400,"height":2400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/just-back-from-vacation-and-overwhelmed-by-messages-and-to-dos\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Just back from vacation and overwhelmed by messages and to-dos?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/","name":"Project Manager Coach - Wan How","description":"Lead Projects with Confidence. Grow as a Leader. Deliver Strategic Results.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#organization","name":"Wan How Consulting","url":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/466236_final.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/466236_final.png","width":1800,"height":1800,"caption":"Wan How Consulting"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wanhowconsulting","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/wanhow\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/person\/a17807f09b1cd5da101fd4c803ef888b","name":"Wan How","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99ea50e562eb2821598e1d4e8190a80f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99ea50e562eb2821598e1d4e8190a80f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Wan How"},"description":"Wan How is a career coach specializing in helping project professionals advance their careers. In his project management career, Wan successfully rescued many troubled projects. These included turning around projects headed for failure within 30 days and compressing project timelines by half to deliver benefits in one year instead of two. Wan has over twenty years of project management experience in traditional, agile and hybrid approaches. As the leader of a Project Management Office, he led a team of project managers and business analysts to deliver corporate projects tied to the organization's business plan and strategic objectives. He has worked in the information technology, government, higher education, oil and gas, and engineering sectors. Wan is a graduate of Cambridge University. His areas of expertise include project management, IT management and facilitation. In addition to the PMP, Wan is an Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP). He has also attained the Certified Professional Facilitator with the International Association of Facilitators.","sameAs":["http:\/\/wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wp.how.1","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/wanhow\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":831,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wanhow.com\/projectmanagercoach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}