Many of us are long overdue for a holiday. We work all year and that trip keeps getting pushed further and further back until we’re forced to admit that we’re completely burnt out.

While holidays are for unplugging, most of us still need to keep in touch with work while away on holiday. We’d like to imagine that we can relax by the pool or on the beach without a worry in mind, but the truth is, if you’re constantly wondering what’s going on in the office, if your clients are being looked after, or if you’ve missed anything important, you’re unlikely to be doing much relaxing at all.

The trick is to keep in touch without going overboard, so you don’t feel like you’ve spent your whole holiday working but you still feel like everything is being handled.

There are a few ways to do this:

Emails

The problem with checking your work emails is that it’s easy to get sucked in and spend an hour or two staring at your computer screen-something which is sure to annoy family or friends.

The trick is to let everyone in the office (and all clients) know that you’ll be out of the office and may check in once a day, but will only respond to urgent emails. Set up an out-of-office reply so if anyone emails you they’ll know exactly which day you’ll be back and able to respond. Be sure to give them alternate people to contact such as your assistant or co-worker.

If you absolutely need to do some inbox clearing, set a timer for 10 or 20 minutes first thing in the morning. You’ll be able to handle anything important and spend the rest of the day relaxing without wondering what’s going on.

Phone

Instead of using roaming, leave your phone at home. Set up a Skype number where clients and colleagues can leave a message if they absolutely have to, and set expectations that you’ll get back to the as soon as you can but it may not be immediate (especially if there are time delays).

Use Travel Apps

If you’re worried that logging into your email could make you lose a few hours, use travel apps for all of your confirmations and itineraries. TripIt is an excellent app which will keep you out of your inbox and allow you to conveniently track all of your travel details in one place and share them if necessary.

Simply forward all of your confirmations to the email address associated with the app, and you’ll find that your itinerary is automatically synced into the app, often with addresses, maps, and photos which is great if you’re looking for your hotel.

Ditch the Notifications

Turn off any notifications which are work related on your laptop and phone. On some devices, you can turn off notifications for different apps or set them onto do not disturb, allowing you to avoid getting pinged every time a new email hits your inbox.

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