When you know you have a vacation coming up, it does two things to you: excite you and make you anxious for the work you’re leaving behind.

That’s why you shouldn’t only prepare for the vacation you’re about to take. You should also be ready for when you come back after a long absence and start working again.

On that note, here are eight of the most crucial things you need to do in the office before you officially take your vacation leave.

1. Start a to-do list

While you’re away, someone else in your office will probably be responsible for your left tasks. You should be a good coworker by giving them a heads up of the unfinished tasks you’re leaving them to do.

That’s why you should start a to-do list that you should provide to the person you think will pick up your work.

Giving them that to-do list will help them significantly. That way, they won’t be blindsided by whatever tasks might come their way. Aside from that, you should make sure that you leave crucial details of your work tasks to them.

You should also include in the list who are the people that are part of the task at hand, so if they have any questions, they can ask those people.

2. Set an out-of-office reply

You don’t want coworkers or clients, and other people thinking that you’re rude or irresponsible. That’s why you need to set an out-of-office response for your phone or your email.

Setting an autoresponder will allow you not to worry about emails or messages that you didn’t respond to right away.

We all know the feeling of coming back to a ton of unanswered emails in our inbox. You can at least feel more relieved by the fact that you had something in place that told them your unavailability.

If you can, try and include in your auto-response a point person to direct them to their concerns.

3. Leave documents accessible

There will be important documents that your coworkers and boss would need access to while you’re away. You don’t want to come back to disgruntled coworkers and so on because you failed to leave them.

That’s why you have to check which work documents that you need to give to them beforehand.

If you can create a link to a specific folder in your cloud storage, that would be the most convenient for everyone.

Remember to allow access to whoever has the link so that you won’t have to experience any inconveniences while you’re away.

4. Delegate work to your teammates

Having a positive relationship with your teammates is crucial (and tested) when you’re out trying to get your vacation. You’re going to rely the most on your teammates.

Although you shouldn’t have to feel guilty about taking your much-needed break, you still be a team player. You can do this by communicating with your team when you go on vacation.

Before you leave, try and delegate your work to your teammates. Since you’re a team, you should let them know that you’re going to be relying on them for a while.

It would help if you weren’t leaving work to your teammates without letting them know. Otherwise, the results might not be to your liking, nor will your teammates appreciate it.

5. Inform your clients

Letting your clients know that you’re out on holiday is a heads up that they’re going to appreciate. That way, they won’t deem you unprofessional because you failed to respond to their queries.

When informing your clients, though, make sure that you point them to a person who would answer their concerns.

6. Clean up your workspace

Another thing you should do before heading out to your vacation would be to clean up your workspace. You don’t want to come back to a messy desk, do you?

The transition from vacation mode to work mode should be as smooth as possible. The best way to do that is by making your arrival as easy for you as possible.

At Maid Sailor Office Cleaning Company NYC, we know so well that coming back to a messy and cluttered office can be overwhelming. You might think that you have so much work left to do. That’s why you should make sure that you clean up your workspace before leaving.

With a clean workspace, you won’t have to worry about feeling overwhelmed by work immediately after returning from a vacation. Aside from that, you will also feel ready to be more productive with a clean workspace.

7. Go through your emails

Besides cleaning up your workspace, it would be best to clean up your email inbox. It would help if you started going through your emails, categorizing them, reading them, responding to them, or deleting them. Once your unread emails are at zero, you can stop.

That way, it will be easier to track emails that you got after you left for your vacation.

8. Prepare for your return

You know that there are specific tasks that you’re going to need to tackle the moment you come back to work. That’s why you should give your future self some slack by making it easier to go back to work.

Prepare the items and information that you need to do before you go back to work. Creating a to-do list of things you need to check while you were away will help you have a system when you come back.

Conclusion

By being ready for your time back to the office, you allow yourself to focus on nothing but your holiday.

That’s because you know you did your due diligence and prepared your workplace for when you’re away.

When you’re about to take your vacation, make sure that you do these things to enjoy your vacation to the fullest.