Episode 306 Overcoming the Summer Scaries: Tips for a Smooth Return to Work

In this week’s episode, we’re diving into a topic many of you might relate to after the blissful summer holidays — the summer scaries.

Similar to the Sunday scaries after the weekend, these feelings of dread, anxiety, and stress about returning to work after the summer break can be overwhelming. Anna shares her personal experiences of taking a proper summer off, enjoying family time, and exploring new adventures, while grappling with the impending return to routine.

We’ll explore strategies to ease these transitions, celebrate the beautiful moments of summer, and prepare for the new season ahead. Whether you’ve had a perfect summer or faced some disappointments, we have practical tips to help you deal with those summer scaries and find balance in your everyday life.

Stay tuned to discover how to make meaningful changes and create a smoother transition back to work.

00:00 Dread returning to work after the summer.

04:21 Anticipating pumpkin pie, embracing the new season.

07:34 Transitioning back to work with calm approach.

09:49 Upcoming work-related episode, Halloween season approaching. Good luck!

*Resources mentioned during the episode*
1:1 Coaching & Mentoring – If you’re looking for one-to-one support to help you achieve your specific life and business goals, Anna has a limited number of spots for individual coaching and mentoring. www.onestepoutside.com/coaching

Overcoming summer scaries anxiety

I think most of us have heard of the Sunday scaries when we dread going back to the office the next day on Monday morning. But have you heard of the summer scaries? This is feeling that same kind of dread, anxiety and stress coming back to work after the summer period. Well, the good news, I suppose, is that you’re not alone if you are feeling those feelings of stress and anxiety about coming back into the office, getting back to work, getting stuck back in with whatever production projects you’ve got going on. The better news, I suppose, is that there are, of course, things that you can do to feel better about those scaries. Now, it’s really important to differentiate, I think, between whether this is just a case of ugh, it’s a bit tough going back to work after the lovely holidays, but hey ho, it’s fine. Or actually, there’s something deeper going on. And if it’s the latter, there might be bigger changes that you need to make. So let’s get stuck in.

So for me, as you may have heard before, if you’re a fan of the podcast and listened to my earlier episodes, I have just experienced now my first proper summer off. Meaning, you know, a bit like maternity leave, I was going to say, although maternity leave, I’d say, was not quite the same experience, having a newborn baby and to be honest, starting work pretty soon thereafter. But I was very much focused on family. My mind was on enjoying myself and of course coming up with ideas of what to do. I had some time by myself, which was incredible, seeing friends old and new, and also lots of really nice family time travelling. I took the kids to Denmark and Sweden. We’ve had lots of time here at the beach. Did a boat tour the other day, been to a castle, did some touristy stuff, done some swimming, done some big things, little things, lots of playgrounds and so on.

But it’s really been almost totally turning off. I’ve had a bit of FOMo because of course I have. I’m part of communities where I see other people doing TED talks and writing books and doing workshops and all sorts. I did have one keynote and one workshop in the last couple of weeks, but apart from that I really didn’t have any planned calls and that was very much my intention to have that time off. However, it is all becoming a little bit real now as we get back stuck into things, and I’m recording this very much last minute. So you’re getting it almost live. After having pre recorded all my summer content. Suddenly it’s September and here we are again with lots of content to create.

So, look, why do we have these summer scaries? Well, it may be that you have these huge expectations of summer holidays. The sun, the barbecues, the beach, weather, maybe going away, maybe not going away. We didn’t do any particular huge, expensive holiday this summer, and I know several of our friends were the same. But whatever your expectations, they might not have been met. We haven’t finished our gardens. We haven’t had a single barbecue in our garden, which is slightly disappointing. You might feel disappointed over the weather not having been as good or not having had the amazing experiences that you were hoping for. Whatever reason, or if you do feel like your expectations were met and you’ve had a lovely time, you might feel sadness, as I do, at it being over. Right.

I really feel sad about. I mean, I know I will miss the kids. I’m very excited about getting back to work in my case, although it’s also filled with trepidation and some nerves around things and so on. Hence the summer scaries. But I am sad that this special time for this year is over. So if that’s you as well, I’d really encourage you to first of all, say, it’s not over yet. Right?

So let’s not go. Oh, my gosh, it’s winter, it’s cold. The summer’s over, the end is nigh, and fun will never happen again. So let’s not quite be that negative. By all means, celebrate your memories. Why not? And I don’t want this to be a project that takes too much time and becomes more of a stress as it can do. But why not create a little album and look back at photos, think back, find a way to kind of celebrate and commemorate the lovely things you’ve done together with your family, with your friends, whatever that is, and create things to look forward to. You know, in my family, we’ve got lots of birthdays, including my own, coming up not too far off in the distance.

Pumpkin pie season putting on the fire. I look forward to that. Not that we should be wishing time away, but thinking about, okay, how can we celebrate and enjoy this new season as well? Because for me, part of the charm of living this country is that we really do have these different seasons, and each one has its pros and its cons. But the shifts can be quite unsettling, but also really exciting as we shift gears into this new season. Now, coming back to this idea of summer scaries more broadly, and I’m going to quote some stats at you. On average, this is pretty hideous. As a statistic that it takes, according to research, just over one working day, in my case, more than one working day, 11 hours for all of the relaxation and joy from holiday to disappear. Bye bye.

That’s pretty hideous, right? A couple of days and boom and all the benefits of your holiday are gone. Now, I think that’s a bit bleak, but nonetheless, I think it’s relatable. We can understand that. Oh, yeah. Stress levels very quickly return to normal as we see all our emails. And in my case, you know, thinking about my strategy, what work I’ve got coming up, money coming in and so on. Being a business owner, I need to think about that as well. And there’s this unfortunate shift that happened, that so called holiday de stress quickly becomes restress.

More than that, though, those kind of post holiday blues, and this is not just the summer, of course, mean that most of us, almost 80%, find returning to work stressful. I’d congratulate those 22% who don’t. And with over a third, 37% feeling dread and 35% feeling anxiety the day before returning to work. So maybe you’re already back in the office, maybe you’re already working away on your business. I hope you’re not feeling this. Maybe you’ve already pushed through that barrier. But if you are, again, know that you’re not alone. And sadly, unfortunately, only about 10%, 13% of us feel relaxed and energetic before the first day back.

And that’s pretty sad, I think. But I think the insight is that it’s not just about the big holidays. Right.

It’s great to have a nice break if you’ve had a break, but it’s certainly not enough. And whether it’s summer holidays here in the northern hemisphere, I know I’ve got some of you listening at the other end of the world that have upside down weather. So apologies that my local references aren’t always relevant to you, but I really believe we need to be making bigger shifts in how we live on an ongoing basis.

Right.

It’s about the micro moments, the day to day ways in which we’re spending our time, not just about those. Oh, I’m going to go on a big, expensive holiday. Honestly, there’s no point almost, not to say that you shouldn’t go on holiday, but that can’t be your only solution. I saw a post the other day that said, you know, Christmas shouldn’t be a time to de stress and have a break. Our workers. And that’s a horrible way of putting it. We should all be balanced and, well, in general, to the point that we can then enjoy that time and celebrate with our families. It shouldn’t be, oh, my gosh, my work is so stressful.

I now need a break. Right. Of course we need breaks. We need breaks during the day, little coffee breaks, little lunch breaks, evenings, weekends, holidays. But that’s not what it should be about. Right?

So it’s not about the holidays, but it’s also not about making huge, drastic, dramatic moves without really thinking them through. So if you’re feeling summer scaries, you’re not alone. Take a deep breath. Know that there’s no pressure here. Ease yourself back in as much as you can. Take it slow, especially if you have your own business now and that’s, you know, you are completely autonomous in how you run your business. As ambitious as I am now, I’m going to really make sure that I don’t kind of, and I know I won’t because I’ve kind of settled into this perhaps almost too complacent rhythm at the end of the spectrum. But I’m not going to rush in and go, oh, my gosh, I’m going to do a workshop tomorrow and a webinar next week and then I’m going to do this on LinkedIn and I’m going to suddenly start posting ten times a day and I’m going to do emails and just saying, that sounds stressful. Right.

So take it slow. Obviously, if you’re within an organisation, then focus on what you can control. We’re going to talk about that next week, talk to other people. We’re all in the same boat here. And focus on the positives. Right.

It’s a time of getting back to the routine. I’m looking forward to having my tennis again that I’m doing. It could be back to gym, walks, healthier eating. Definitely after the summer break, in my case, seeing friends, colleagues, whatever that is. Right. Getting back to a hobby. Look at the positives again of this new season of getting back to routine and so on. Now, if, of course, it’s more than just it’s back to work feeling, it’s not just that passing.

Oh. Oh, well, it’s been nice to have time off. Of course it’s been nice to have time off, but we all recognise that we wouldn’t even want to always be on holiday. Speak for myself, if it’s something deeper than that kind of fleeting feeling, then by all means, we need to go ahead and address that for the mid and longer term. Right.

And of course, I’ve got lots of resources to help you do that. If that’s the case, and so do cheque out the podcast. Get in touch, and you can email me@podcastonstepatside.com or you can message me on any of my socials. Anna S. E. Lundberg is usually where you’ll find me, and we can talk about how I can support you with that. But yes, there may be some bigger shifts that need to come. And in fact, we’ve got the international week of happiness at work coming up, so we’ll talk about that.

If you’re not happy at work, then watch this space. Keep an ear out for that episode in a couple of weeks as well. In the meantime, I wish you best of luck with a short little episode on the summer scaries. Hope they’re not too scary for you. We are coming up to the season of Halloween, so that’s very appropriate. Looking forward to our first one when the kids are kind of old enough to know what’s going on in our case. So wishing you all the best for the new energetic start to the school year, whether you’re at school or not, whether you have kids at school or not. And again, take a deep breath, take it slow, and focus on what this new season has to offer.

See you next week. Bye for now.

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