How to Get Back to Your Routines After a Trip (My Post-Vacay Routine)
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ How I have managed our trip-packed summer while being an entrepreneur and a mom
⋒ 3 steps to get you back into your routine after a trip
⋒ What my post-trip routine actually looks like
If you follow me over on Instagram, you may have noticed that the summer was full of trips for me. I went on 3 trips within a month’s timespan which is a lot for me because normally I go on 1-2 trips a year.
At the end of June, Adam and I went to Nashville for a work trip.
Then the first week of July, Adam, Everly, and I all went to the beach with my family on the other coast of Florida.
Then the third week of July, Adam, Everly, and I all went to North Carolina to spend time in the mountains with Adam’s family.
One question that I kept getting in my DMs after traveling so much in a short timeframe like that was how do I get back to my routines after a trip – so that is what we are going to talk about today – how to get back to your routines after a trip and I’m also going to share my post-vacation routine.
The post-trip blues are a real thing and I know some of you can relate to sitting on the plane on your way home and that heavy feeling of dread hanging over you – you already feel overwhelmed by how much you have to do when you get home and any resting that you did on the trip is slowly melting away as you inch closer to home.
That makes it feel tempting to just lean into your post-trip sluggishness and ignore everything for a week when you get back, hoping that your routines just magically start happening around you, while you procrastinate unpacking, ignore catching up on emails, and staying up late like you did on vacation (even though your regular life schedule alarm is going off the next morning). But I promise that you will feel 10 times worse in the long run if you do that – it takes some planning and effort to get back into your routines after a trip but that effort is very much worth it when you don’t feel like a sad, bloated sloth when you get home from your trip!
Before we go any further, though, I have to say it: our schedules and routines are tools, not chains! Y’all hear me say that allllll the time but what does it actually mean?
Your schedules and routines are not meant to box you in or create stress in your life – they are created to support your season. You are the boss of your routines, your routines aren’t the boss of you, you know?
So keep that in mind as we go through this blog post, but I’ve got 3 steps for you to help you get back to your routine after a trip.
01. Set post-trip you up for success.
I think the biggest mistake that people make when it comes to getting back to their routine after a trip is not having thought about it until after the trip and then you kinda feel scattered and overwhelmed because you’re trying to wing getting back into your routine and it feels like a lot to go from sipping mai tais on the beach or whatever you were doing on your trip to being back in your normal flow of things.
By taking some time to set your intentions before your trip, you can help ease that feeling of overwhelm when you get back. So how can you set post-trip you up for success?
Think about what you want to focus on before your trip – like what things can you do before you leave so that things feel less hectic when you get back?
For me, it’s things like making a grocery list that’s ready to go for when I get back and clearing out my email inbox and setting up an automated OOO responder with when they can expect to hear back from me so that I don’t feel stressed about answering emails.
02. Decide how you want your first and second days back from your trip to be spent.
Again, I like to have a game plan of how I envision my first and second day back before I actually get back so that I don’t already feel behind when I get back. I know that when I try to just wing day-to-day plans, I feel stressed out. I like to know how I’m going to show up for a day before the day gets here if that makes sense.
To do this, I focus on what tasks I want to do, yes, but I also think about how I want to feel.
I think about what time I’ll be getting home – if it’s in the middle of the night or late at night, obviously I’m going to just go home, do my skincare, and go to bed rather than unpacking and doing laundry at 2 AM.
With my arrival time in mind, I envision how I want to feel when I get back and then choose tasks and habits that I know will help me feel those things to help me plan out the day I get back before I leave for my trip.
I like to spend time before my trip planning out my first 2 days home so that I can come home not feeling stressed out already. And when I’m planning these 2 days, I am realistic – I plan days that I know will honor lower-than-normal energy from traveling.
03. Assess and pivot as necessary.
Getting back into my regular routine after a trip depends on how long I was gone but I’d say it usually takes me about a week to feel like I’m really back in my routines.
That being said, sometimes when I get home from a trip, I just have a different perspective – I’m rested and rejuvenated – and I realize that maybe some of my pre-vacay routines were actually draining me so I use this as an opportunity to evaluate my routines as I go back to them and if I get that feeling about any of them, I tweak them or ditch them all together so that they better support me.
I know y’all are all about concrete examples, so I wanted to share my current post-vacation routine – emphasis on the word current. I update this as my seasons and priorities shift. Routines aren’t just set ‘em and forget ‘em – you have to update them to support you when your life changes. But this is working really well for me right now so I’m happy to share it!
A little disclaimer: these vary a little depending on the type of trip I was on - if I was away from my family then I prioritize spending time with them when I get back, for example. But for the most part, this is what a typical post-trip routine looks like for me:
Before the trip:
~ Plan out the first 2 days for when I get back from the trip
~ Water all my plants
~ Make a grocery list
~ Clean out the fridge of food that will go bad while I am away
~ Clean the house (I just do like a 60-minute full house clean up)
~ Answer all my emails and set up my OOO responder with an anticipated date of when people can expect to hear back from me
~ When possible, I plan to take the day after getting home from a trip off of work or I plan a really light workday
The day I get home from the trip, I prioritize the following:
~ Unpack + do laundry (so that it doesn’t get backed up)
~ Get a full night of sleep
~ Drink a gallon of water
~ Eat something green
~ Move my body gently (stretching or walking)
~ Take off work
~ Order groceries (takes no time because I made the grocery list before I left)
Notice that I’m prioritizing a lot of my physical needs like sleep, movement, water, and nourishing food – I like to keep it very simple and practical the day I get home from a trip because that feels best for me.
The day after I get home I prioritize, I prioritize the following:
~ Still prioritizing sleep, water, and nourishing foods
~ Take off work when possible
~ Doing my morning routine
~ Doing my evening routine
~ Going to a workout class at my favorite gym
~ Sit down with my planner to plan the rest of the week (work and life)
For both days, I use Hustle Sanely 5 to help me know what my Focus 3 tasks are each day, hold me accountable to moving my body (which is usually something light the first day back – like a family walk), clean the house strategically, and weaving in self-care and spending time with my loved ones.
HS5 is a routine that truly supports me in getting stuff done and taking care of myself. I love it – obviously, lol.
Setting my days up like this after a trip helps me get back into the normal rhythm of my routines. And honestly, I LOVE my routines and I know they make my l; life better so it doesn’t feel like a punishment to get back to them. I usually am craving my normal routines by the end of the trip. That’s a sign that my routines are good for my current season. If you’re feeling resistance or dread toward any of your pre-trip routines, like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, this is a good time to tweak them!
That is what I’ve got for you today – how to get back to your routines after a trip and a little insight as to what my current post-vacay routine looks like. I hope this was helpful – maybe you have a second half of the summer trip planned or you can even file this info away for any holiday trips that you have planned later this year.
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