Back to work after vacation used to be the part of any holiday I dreaded most — not the vacation itself, but the exact moment it ended.

At the beginning of July, I took two weeks off work — I wish it could have been longer, but with colleagues out, two weeks was what I could manage this time. Honestly, I was a little worried about going back. Not because I don’t like my job, but because I know myself, and I know that Sunday-afternoon feeling: vacation officially over, and my brain suddenly trying to run through everything at once — work tomorrow, the kids, kindergarten, clothes, bags, breakfast, my husband getting ready for his week, emails waiting for me. Everything I hadn’t thought about in two weeks wanting my attention at the exact same time.

In the past, that Sunday before going back to work could quietly ruin the last stretch of my holiday. Instead of enjoying the final hours, I’d already be mentally at my desk. This time was different, and honestly, I felt great. The reason was almost embarrassingly simple: I had my Done List.

My Sunday Before Going Back to Work

Sunday was our day for easing back into real life before going back to work — me, my husband, and the kids slowly getting everything ready again. Laundry, clothes for kindergarten, things for work, bags, food — all those small things that somehow multiply once you have children and everyone needs to be somewhere early Monday morning.

Normally, just looking at everything waiting for me would have been enough to feel overwhelmed. This time, I didn’t make one giant list of everything left to do. I used the Done List™ Method — instead of writing what I had to do, I wrote a few things in the past tense, as if Sunday evening had already arrived and everything was already finished:

• I prepared everything for kindergarten.
• I got my things ready for work.
• We were ready for Monday morning.

That was it. And somehow the whole day felt different. I wasn’t staring at one giant list thinking I still have so much to do — I was just moving toward something that already felt finished in my head, one thing at a time. By Sunday evening, it actually was.

The First Morning Back at Work

Then Monday came — my first day back to work after two weeks away, and I was bracing for that familiar shock, the one where you open your inbox and immediately wonder if the vacation was worth it. Messages, updates, things you know nothing about yet, and at least one problem that apparently became very urgent while you were gone.

Before, I would have looked at all of it at once — and that was always my mistake, because when everything is in front of you at the same time, everything feels equally urgent. This time, I did what I’d already done on Sunday: I chose what actually mattered and wrote my Done List. Not twenty things — just a few.

• I read the important emails.
• I caught up on what happened while I was away.
• I finished the things that needed my attention today.

That simple shift made coming back so much easier. I didn’t feel like I had to catch up on two weeks of life in a single eight-hour day. I just needed to get through that one day, and I did.

Why Going Back to Work After Vacation Always Feels This Hard

I think the hardest part of returning from vacation is the mental switch. For two weeks my days looked completely different — no morning rush, no work routine, no running mental tally of what needed finishing before the day ended. Then suddenly it all starts again, and when you have kids, you’re not just easing yourself back into routine, the whole family is doing it together.

I think this is where we usually make it harder on ourselves — we expect Monday to look completely normal, expect ourselves to be instantly productive and fully focused, when really, your brain has been somewhere else for two weeks and it just needs a minute. This actually lines up with a well-documented pattern in psychology called the Zeigarnik Effect: unfinished tasks and open mental loops tend to resurface and demand attention far more than ones already resolved — which is exactly what a two-week backlog feels like on a Monday morning.

I Stopped Trying to Do Everything on Day One

This was probably the biggest shift for me. I stopped treating the first day back like something I had to prove. I didn’t need to answer everything immediately, fix every problem, or catch up on everything I’d missed — I just needed to understand what was actually happening and decide what mattered first.

That’s exactly why the Done List works so well for me here. It gives my brain an ending before I even start. Instead of a long list of unfinished tasks, I see a few things that are already done, at least on paper — and then I simply work my way toward making that sentence true. This is the same shift I write about in The CalmDone Method — writing it down first is what makes it stick.

My Back-to-Work Routine Now

I’m not going to pretend I came back from vacation and turned into the most organized person alive. I still have two kids, a full-time job, and I still run CalmDone after hours — there are always things to do. But this time, I didn’t get that complete shock I used to feel when vacation ended. Sunday was calm. Monday was manageable. And most importantly, I didn’t spend the last day of my holiday already worrying about the next one.

My small Done List helped me return to routine without feeling like my entire life was waiting for me all at once. Maybe that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned: going back to work after vacation doesn’t require restarting everything in one day. Prepare for Monday. Choose a few things that matter. Write them down, one by one, in the past tense — and let the rest wait.

If you want a guided place to practice this before your next trip, the Signature Collection planners are built around exactly this rhythm, and the 12 Months of Calm Collection carries the same method through every season of the year.

Because your vacation may be over. But your calm doesn’t have to be.

With love, Jelena