This article is sponsored by Office Depot.
It’s been a rough couple of years—and I know many of us have been hesitant to take time off.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, in 2018, 768 million U.S. vacation days went unused. A few years (and a pandemic) later, a 2022 report by Allianz found that employees finally traveled at a percentage they hadn't since 2009!
While we get a little better at taking our deserved time off work, many of us still hesitate to put our OOO messages up, log out, and stay away from our work for a few days. Why is that so difficult to do?
When I recently took some time off, I prepared as much as possible. In doing so, I was able to enjoy my time off and come back refreshed and—get this—ahead of the game!
I wanted to share with you how I used products and services at Office Depot to create systems, declutter, and get those last-minute to-dos done before taking some much-needed time away.
Before we get into how I prepared my time off, I wanted to share these other resources to help you request and prepare your own time off:
- How to Ask for Time Off From Work (Plus Examples + Templates)
- How to Ask Your Boss for a Sabbatical
- 7 Out of Office Messages That Set Professional Boundaries
- Real-Life Stories of Maternity Leave
- How to Ask Your Boss 11 Tough Questions + The Scripts You Need
- Our 8 Quick + Easy Sick Day Email Templates for Every Scenario
1. Organized My Desk (+ Made It Look Great for My Return)
The first thing I wanted to do was to make my desk look beautiful.
So, the first thing I did was to make sure my WFH desk was neat and spiffy. This way, when I returned to work, I’d be greeted by a refreshed working space.
It’s surprising how much paper I accumulate even though I work on a digital platform with digital products. Okay, a quick confession: I do love to brainstorm by drawing out my thoughts and ideas on paper, so there is that.
I purchased this See Jane Work Blue Tile File Sorter + these really pretty file folders to organize all of my professional scribbles. :)
Then, there are the knick-knacks that need their own place without being stuffed into a drawer. You know, the incidentals like hand lotion, sticky notes, and more. For these, I went to Office Depot and got the matching See Jane Work Desk Tray.
I also took this time to purge my desk area—to get some things I didn’t need out of sight and out of mind! For those items, I purchased a clear file tote, organized all my extras inside, and snapped the lid shut.
If you love organizing your desk, you'll also love this piece on organizing your desk to get more productive.
2. Printed a Few Resources
Having access to an easy-to-use printer or printing services is an absolute game-changer, especially when working from home. I used Office Depot to print out some of our resources to get a little self-care going on my time off.
Bear with me, because I am about to reveal the total love affair I am having with Office Depot's printing and binding—so much so that the employees at my local Office Depot know me by name at this point!
As a digital company, we create a ton of resources that exist online only. So, I was super excited to get two self-care resources physically in my hands. I set out to print and bind our special edition Confidence Cards (pictured above) and our 100 Days of Self-Care Checklist.
When I say these resources came out beautiful, I mean it. I could customize my cover, binding, and the paper’s weight. Best of all, I submitted my order online, and it was ready for pickup the same day!
During my time off, I had all that I needed to get into some real (much-needed!) self-care.
3. Created Printed Resources for My Team to Follow
Once I realized how beautiful the printed materials could be, I admit, I got into it. Like, really into it.
I created binders for my team to reference for pretty much every scenario. If a new client came through, a random question arose, or if somebody needed to access certain software, my team had all of the keys to Career Contessa—neatly organized in a binder.
Just like organizing my desk, creating these resources was like completing five jobs at once. These beautifully-printed guides will ensure that everyone on the Career Contessa team can take time off that they need—with clear instructions on how to keep the business running!
The next thing I needed to do was ship these binders to my employees, which brings me to my next item.
4. Tackled the Final To-Dos (Like Shipping!) On My List
Another fun part of prepping for time off (read: not fun) is taking care of those to-dos that you can’t seem to remove from your list. One of the final to-dos I had was to package and send a box to a giveaway winner—full of goodies from women-owned businesses!
Speaking of to-dos, we have these great uncommon to-do lists that you can use every day to prioritize and check everything off your list.
A trip to the post office is one of those to-dos that feels impossible to check off my list. I didn't want to deal with the hassle.
Using Office Depot to send out the package was a lifesaver. First of all, it was an enormous box, so I didn’t want to have to lug it to the post office, wait in line forever, find out I didn’t have the right forms, and have to start all over again.
I packaged everything from my home office and returned to safely and easily post it out. When I came back to the store, I sent the package out in less than five minutes—and it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, either!
With that, my last huge to-do was to-done!
5. Set My OOO Message + Hit the Road (or Indulge in a Staycation!)
The last step is that Out of Office message. We all know the feeling of sweet, sweet freedom we feel when we set an out-of-office message for a vacation. It’s the true signifier that we are out of here.
Make sure your OOO message communicates exactly how available (or how unavailable!) you’ll be and redirects your contacts to a source to help them out. When writing your OOO message, be honest about the boundaries you want to set and maintain.
Lastly, I wanted to say thank you to Office Depot for helping me to organize so that I can get time away without having to worry about my business.
This article is sponsored by Office Depot.
