8 tips to make your time off actually feel like time off

It is that time of the year again! That well-deserved break you have been waiting for, maybe for weeks, maybe for months, is finally within reach. You tell yourself you will switch off properly this time.  But here is what often happens instead: You spend the week before your holiday trying to close every open loop. You activate your out-of-office, but you keep checking your emails “just in case.” You are away, but you are not off. Then you come back tired, behind, and vaguely resentful that your time off did not really do what it was meant to.

We often treat rest, relaxation, and recovery as interchangeable. They are not. Rest is the decision to stop pushing, no effort to be productive, no pressure to be “on.” Relaxation is physical; your breath slows, your body softens, your system starts to settle. Recovery is what happens when you fully disconnect from work and do something that restores you. It could be stillness, movement, or creativity, but it has to be yours, not driven by deadlines or expectations. You can rest without relaxing. You can relax without recovering. The goal is to make space for all three.

According to research (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007), real recovery depends on four things: mentally disconnecting from work, physical and mental relaxation, autonomy over how you spend your time, and engaging with something that gives you a sense of challenge or purpose outside work.

Time off does not automatically deliver any of those. But it can, if you design it right. Here are 8 practical tips that will help your time off feel like a real break.

1. Stop trying to finish everything before you leave

—> The 3-Bucket Exit

Trying to finish it all is a trap. You will not, and you do not need to.

Instead, five working days before your break, sort your workload into three buckets:
• What will keep moving while you are gone
• What can safely wait
• What someone else needs to handle temporarily

This gives you structure. It tells you where to hand over, what to pause, and where to focus. Your job is not to disappear with everything done. It is to leave clarity behind.

2. Write a one-page handover people will actually use

—> The 5-Part Handover

Nobody has time to read a novel. A good handover takes ten minutes to read and gives people exactly what they need.

Include:
• What is active (just the essentials)
• Who owns what while you are away
• What might come up, and what to do if it does
• What to avoid or leave alone
• Links to files or threads they will need

Be specific. Do not write “monitor”, say what action to take, when, and why. A good handover reduces guesswork. It does not create more of it.

3. Delegate decisions, not just actions

—> The 4C Delegation Model

People do not need a task list. They need your thinking.

The 4C model gives them what they need to act without asking:

• Context: what is happening and why it matters
• Criteria: what success looks like
• Constraints — what not to do, or when to escalate
• Contacts — who else to involve if needed

This gives people confidence to act, not just instructions to follow. Add what you do not want them to do. Boundaries reduce back-and-forth.

4. Make your out-of-office message mean something

—> The Set-It-and-Mean-It Rule

“Limited access to email” is code for “I will check constantly my emails.” Do not do that.

Your message should clearly say:
• When you are away and when you will return
• If or when you will check messages (on Tuesday and Friday for example)
• Who to contact in your absence
• What counts as urgent — and what does not

Then log out. Remove the app from your phone if needed. Trust the system you put in place. If you are reachable, be clear. If you are not, be fully off.

5. Start planning your exit two weeks in advance

—> The Prep Buffer

If your handover is being typed furiously 15 minutes before logging off, you are already behind.

Give yourself a two-week runway. In week one, list what needs handover, schedule time to brief people, and chase anything unresolved. In week two, finalise the handover, schedule check-ins, and build margin for last-minute chaos.

A calm exit is not magic. It is just planned ahead.

6. Begin your break with stillness, then add active recovery

—> The Recovery Curve

Your nervous system needs to decelerate. Start your break with a couple of days of rest. No plans, no pressure, no projects. Let your system register that the pace has changed.

Once your body has caught up, add active recovery. That means things that require attention and bring joy: cooking, hiking, making things, or learning for fun. Doing nothing is not the only way to rest. Switching gears is often more effective than stopping completely.

7. Block your first day back

—> The Re-entry Buffer

Coming back to meetings and chaos erases your rest. Before you leave, block your return day for internal work only. No meetings. No deadlines. No catch-ups.

Use that time to open your return note, check the status of paused items, and triage your inbox. Give yourself 90 minutes to get your bearings before saying yes to anything new.

These eight tips are not about being perfect. They are about being deliberate. If you want your break to do its job, you need to prepare like you mean it, step away like you trust your system, and return like you are still in charge of your time. Start two weeks out. Leave structure. Make space for relexation. Protect your re-entry. Then take one thing with you from your time off and build around it. Because the real win is not just logging off — it is coming back different. Even just a little.