Post-Vacation Blahs

I am suffering from the Post-Vacation Blahs.  A few weeks ago, I whined about the Pre-Vacation Blahs.  Now I am back with more whining about the Post-Vacation Blahs.  These two ailments often go together for those of us with busy lives.  They zap motivation and make it impossible to get things done in a timely manner.  Thus, I am supposed to post a blog in roughly an hour and a half, and I have only now just begun writing it.  I also still need to make and eat dinner in that same time period.  Plus, my husband will likely demand some attention once he gets home.

The Post-Vacation Blahs often hit minutes after I arrive at work after a vacation.  I usually come back to over a hundred emails, dozens of journal entries, dozens of reconciliations, and a crisis or two.  I am overwhelmed from the moment I walk in the door.  Almost nothing is completed by anyone else while I am gone, unless I am away for an extended period of time and something critical is due.  My deadlines do not go away, although the likelihood I will be late increases dramatically after a week off.  I end up going in early, staying late, working through lunch, and putting in hours on the weekend to get through all the stuff that accumulated while I was gone.   Sometimes I feel I put in as many extra hours as I took off and have basically canceled out my vacation.

Then, if I actually left home on my trip, I come back to all the house chores that were not completed while I was gone.  There is always laundry to do when I get back.  If anyone else was home while I was gone, then there will be dishes to wash and random clutter to escort back to proper places.  I have to sort through a huge pile of (mostly junk) mail.  I also have to go through receipts and credit card statements to keep track of expenses, and make sure any bills coming due are paid.  It would be nice if other people would help with these tasks, but often it is left to me regardless of whether anyone else was around the house during my vacation.  If I ask for help, then I get blank stares or half-hearted attempts that I end up redoing anyway.

So that is my version of the Post-Vacation Blahs.  Sadly, I usually feel so overwhelmed when I come back that I do not enjoy my time off even when the actual vacation was pleasant.  For example, this time I had a week off at the end of February and then an extra day for a weekend trip this past weekend.  I visited with family.  I watched movies.  I read books.  I saw a ballet.  I ate good food.  I relaxed.  My week vacation was very relaxing, especially because I was good about not pushing myself to do too many home projects.  My long weekend was even better, which I spent with a cousin just hanging out.  Now, I feel like I might as well not have had the time off at all.  I am still trying to deal with emails that came in while I was gone the first week.  I keep posting journal entries, but for every one that I post three more show up in my inbox.  I already am expecting to work this weekend in order to get things done for the close.  I get too burned out to not take vacations and too overwhelmed to actually take them.  There does not seem to be a good balance ever.

What about you?  Do you ever suffer from the Post-Vacation Blahs?  How do you get through it?

See you next week!