How to wind down for the year

December is here, and another year has blown by. Chances are, you’re going to get some time off for the holidays. If so, you may have a week(-ish) to recharge before you have to ramp back up in January.

In order to get the most out of your time off, it would be ideal if you could unplug from work completely to give your mind a rest and to focus on family, friends, and yourself. There are a few things you can do to prepare now that will help a lot and will also make your transition back to the office go smoothly.

Close as many tasks as possible

Research going back almost 100 years finds that when you have a task to complete, you are highly motivated to finish it. It stays active in your memory, and you seek opportunities to get it done.

That tendency is normally a good one. But on a break, it is a factor that will drive your mind back to the workplace—even when you’re supposed to be relaxing. To give yourself the best chance to chill, see if you can close out key tasks before you leave. At a minimum, reach a good stopping place on tasks so that you don’t feel like you have left them incomplete.

You should also avoid starting any big new projects that will hang over the break. Instead, focus on polishing off as many unfinished things as possible.

Comment your work

If you take an introductory programming class, the instructors will drill into your head that you should “comment your code” as you go along. The aim is to write down a glossary of key variable names, the purpose of sections of code, and any other information about critical data structures, functions, or procedures that will remind you what the code was about. The idea is that the whole structure seems obvious while you’re writing it, but if you have to return to that code weeks, months, or even years later, you will have no recollection of what you did. So, leaving comments will enable you to reconstruct the purpose of that section of code.

The same holds true for many of the elements on your current to-do list. When you’re in the office daily, you can recall from one day to the next the purpose of various meetings, the status of key projects, and the reasons for decisions that were made about ongoing work.

Even after a week off, some of those details may get fuzzy. Before you head out for vacation, take some time to make notes on the core elements of ongoing projects. Include little reminders of why things are being done the way they are. Make sure you have good notes to remind you of meetings the first week or two you’re back from break. It takes extra time to add these notes (particularly if you’re not used to doing so), but you’ll thank yourself later.

Also, the AI systems powering many email systems are now trying to add relevant documents and notes to meetings on your calendar. That is great, but take the time to see whether the documents and other information included in the meetings on your calendar are actually relevant to what you need to work on. If not, add some information yourself to make sure you’re ready after you get back.

Check in with your team

If you really want to be able to relax, check in with all of your team members the week before you head out. You probably aren’t in complete control of every project you’re working on.

When you talk with your team, find out if there are any major crises brewing that you’ll need to address when you get back. If there is anything you can do to help with those before the vacation, prioritize that. In addition, get early warning about any last-minute tasks you may be asked to do before heading out. You don’t want to feel pressure to finish something on your way out the door to start your break. Most people don’t do their best work in such a rushed situation.

If you have any direct reports, encourage them to relax, recharge, and renew during the break. The people who work for you probably want you to have a good impression of their work, and some of them may feel like you’ll appreciate them doing additional work over the holidays. Everyone needs downtime. A word from you—assuring them that the best thing they can do during the holiday break is to put their work aside—will go a long way toward helping your team come back feeling refreshed.

Don’t forget your vacation message

You should do your best to avoid checking email over the break. It can be tempting to find out what has come in, but once you start checking, you run the risk of going down a rabbit hole that can eat up several hours of your precious relaxation time.

Instead, before you head out the door, take advantage of the tools in your email system to leave an out-of-office message. Lots of people do that routinely—but if you have resisted so far, it is time to give in. If people know you’re not going to be responding to messages until the new year, you’re not under any pressure to get them a response faster.

Of course, if you’re in a business in which emergencies can arise, make sure key individuals and clients have a way to reach you should something serious go wrong. But otherwise, structure your communication channels so that there is no need to look at anything until after you get back.

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