14 Things to do at work before going on vacation [+ Printable checklist]

So, you are going on vacation soon, how exciting!! Before packing and getting ready to go and enjoy your days off, you need to do a few things in the office before leaving.

Grab your pen and a calendar; you will need to add some dates. These 12 tips to do are in a month to 3 weeks time frame and these apply for longer vacations. You might not need to do this if you are taking only 1 day to have a long weekend. Please don’t do these the last day at work before vacation! These can be done independently if you work full time or not.

Doing these steps will lower the stress and the additional workload of going on vacation and coming back. Studies have found that coming back from vacation can mean a peak of work and stress because of the workload. This way you can relax and enjoy your travels even more and not be overwhelmed when you come back.

14 things to do at work before leaving on vacation

The first and most obvious thing is to make sure that everyone is aware that you requested time off. This should be done at least 1 month ahead (it depends on the length of your vacation).

Remind your manager and clients that you are leaving on vacation soon. Send them a quick reminder a month before leaving and 1 or 2 weeks prior to your departure date so they don’t plan any additional work for you.

I’m sure you already asked your boss for a vacation the correct way (if you don’t know what I’m talking about check my other article, how to ask for vacations) so you already did a mini plan of who will take your workload while you are gone. Think about who is going to pick up your workload, is it one or two persons? How are you going to divide the workload?

Flay lay of a calendar. Planning is part of the Checklist: 12 Things to do at work before going on vacation

Is there any work that you can do before your vacation? If so, do these tasks before leaving. If you think you don’t have enough time, it might be a good idea to stay longer some days for a few hours. Your team will really appreciate it (and your future you as well)!

Are there tasks that can wait until you come back? If so, keep them for yourself, don’t overload your colleagues.

Write a TO-DO list of all your tasks so your team knows what needs to be done. In addition to the to-do list, is there documentation that the person picking up your work can use as a reference? If not, consider writing a quick "how-to" detailing all the steps. Psst, this will give you bonus points with your manager as well ;) Having this document ready will avoid having your colleagues call you on your time off with burning questions.

Have a meeting with your manager & colleagues to go over the tasks that need to be done while you are away. This will allow them to ask you any questions without constantly asking over the course of a few days, or worse, call you while you are getting a nice glass of wine overlooking a vineyard. Is there a difficult thing that they need to do? Go over all the steps several times with them.
Can you be reached during all of your vacations? How can your team reach you? Can they reach you for anything or just for emergencies? What is considered an emergency? It is important that you set all of these boundaries before leaving.

Do you deal with clients? If so, call them; let them know who will be the resource person during your absence. If they don’t know the person, you should introduce them ASAP. Go over the steps with the person replacing you and your client, this will make them comfortable with the idea of you not being there for 3 weeks.

Write your Out Of Office email (OOO) and change your voice mail on your answering machine. Automate it so that it goes live 1 day before you leave and 1 day after you come back. Why this buffer? This will get people used to the idea that you will not be there and that they should start having a discussion with another person. Also, we all know that when you come back, you will have thousands of emails, this will give you time to get back to reality without being submerged. Who said that your OOO message needs to be boring? Add a personal touch, get creative, and tell others what you are doing, and maybe you will ignite some wanderlust as well or be funny, here are some great examples. Say if you are accessible or not (although, you should always aim for an unplugged vacation.) Don’t forget to put the dates that you are gone and who to contact in the company while you are out.

Book a meeting with yourself and the person(s) who will pick up your workload to debrief on you get back from vacation. This way you can be all up to date in the business. Don’t book anything else for that first day this will allow you to catch up and not feel overwhelmed by coming back to work
On your last day, clean your desk and or office, nobody wants to see a messy desk with a dirty cup of coffee. If you go to the office don’t forget to pick up things that you might have left on the fridge.

Flat lay of messy desk. 12 Things to do at work before going on vacation

Leave all your documents accessible to your coworkers and your boss. Consider leaving your passwords to one or two colleagues in case they might have to access a document that you forgot to share.