Post Holiday Checklist

Recently we took our first proper break as a company since I began working for Tosbourn Ltd. We came up with a list of tasks that we thought were good for post holiday and thought it would be helpful to share them.

After being away for 5 or more “working days” (Monday-Friday) we follow this checklist in order to make sure we’re back up to speed as soon as possible.

Where possible this should be done on the first working day back, as such as a general rule the first working day back should not be one where we’ve planned in work for someone. That means if we arrive back from our holiday on a Wednesday, Thursday should never have been planned in for client work. We do this because we all know no one gives their best work when they are tired and we want to provide the best value to our clients.

There is no particular order to these tasks;

• Look through the logs/error reports for clients we have ongoing support for and our own internal projects. This way we can rectify any issues that may have occurred in our absence.
• Look through Google Analytics reports to quickly assess for spikes/troughs for clients we have ongoing support for and our own internal projects.
• Check for messages or replies on social media that we need to get back to (Mastodon, LinkedIn, etc).
• Check for messages or replies on personal social media accounts that may be work related (normally LinkedIn).
• Turn off any out of office notifications.
• Announce to clients and on social media that we’re back. When letting a client know try and have an idea of what is expected of you before saying you are back. This is so we can quickly respond to things that they’ve spoken to us about whilst we’ve been away (see below - Slack/emails).
• Run through emails and note down what needs actioned or replied to (actually responding to the emails can be done whenever you deem appropriate).
• Run through Slack channels and note down anything that needs actioned or replied to (when you deem appropriate).
• Check the social media queue – This should have been filled and had a bit of a run over, but make sure it is topped up with good relevant content.

We haven’t had many holidays since Tosbourn Ltd. has been in existence so this list will surely continue to evolve over time. If you have anything else that you do please comment below and let us know.