Imagine this.
You’ve just got back from a great vacation. You’re feeling relaxed and dreamy and blissed out.
You sit down at your computer, a happy but slightly dopey expression lingering on your face, when suddenly–DUN DUN DUN!!–you see 4,679 new messages in your inbox.
If you relate to this, you might like to re-consider your holiday email policy.
The Vacation Dilemma: To Check Or Not To Check Email
A lot of people believe that when on holiday, you should unplug. Turn off the computer, disengage from social media, step away from the iPad.
The break will recharge you, they say. You’ll be more creative, they promise. And they may well be right.
However…
The pain of re-entry can undo all the benefits of your relaxing sojourn. Fast.
If you come home to find an email or social media bomb has detonated, then it won’t take long before the vein on your left temple resumes popping with re-doubled intensity.
For this reason, I always check email on holiday. I spend about 20 or 30 minutes every day reading, replying, and keeping my inbox under control. That 30 minutes is a small price to pay for the feeling I get of being on top of things. For the reassurance that when I get back, I can sail right back into my work life with my post-vacation calm intact, and all my veins right where they should be.
Which is not to say that this strategy is for everyone.
All I can say is that I’ve done vacations both ways – with no email and with the daily 30-minute email session – and there’s no question that checking email makes for a more relaxing vacation and post-vacation experience for me.
What’s Your Vacation Email Policy?
What about you? Do you access email on vacation? Or do you prefer to face the inbox music on your return?
My group wrote the following vacation email policy:
Our vacation email policy.
When on vacation we only check emails if it pertains to our trip. Before leaving home turn off new emails until you return.
If you’re on a business trip then by all means take your laptop to finalize pending business dealings.
If teenagers are traveling it’s hard to get them to turn off there iPads, MP3’s, Xbox, Laptops, etc.
How about a third option? – don’t’ check your email while away and don’t arrive back to an overflowing inbox? 🙂
We put some thought into this and our Community Manager tested out how the team inbox could help him attack this problem while he was on holiday recently. You can read about his experience here: “Only 12 emails after a week long vacation, how is that possible?”
http://blog.unifiedinbox.com/index/id-12-emails-after-a-week-long-vacation-how-is-that-possible.html
The only way I would check my emails on vacation if I was waiting on pertinent information for my trip. Otherwise I don’t check my emails on vacation which isn’t too often.
The only way I would check my emails on vacation if I was waiting on pertinent information for my trip. Otherwise I don’t check my emails on vacation which isn’t too often.
I prefer not to check my mail during holiday. I do not want other worries to eat away my relaxation period.
Fair enough! 🙂
I agree Michele; a little checking on vacation with aggressive deletion is good. If I was out of the country for a few weeks and my inbox contained 500 emails, what would I do? I would put a temporary folder in my mailbox and scan through the 500 emails searching for really important messages to drag there. Then, with really important messages safely tucked away, I would open the inbox menu and select Delete All. Yes, Delete All. The onslaught of new messages would start soon enough, to give me plenty to do. If I missed something, no worry; it will come back somehow. Thanks!
One of the best tips is to try and manage your email before you leave on Holiday so that it is in control when you return.
Also if you use email in business a really well written Out of Office message can take a lot of the strain.
Read more tips from http://www.emailogic.com./newsletters.asp including an article on How to Write the Perfect Out of Office message.