How do you handle going back to work after the summer holidays?

In Italian, rientro means coming back: the Treccani dictionary defines it as returning to the place you left, whether home or your usual base. At the end of summer, the word takes on a particular weight: the return from the beach to the city, from holiday to work. The feeling is familiar well beyond Italy: a full inbox, an alarm clock that seems unreasonably early, and a head still somewhere near the sea.

Some of the gloom is unavoidable. Much of it can be softened.

Build in a landing day

The single most useful thing is a buffer between the holiday and work. If you can, come home a day, or even half a day, before you're due back. Use it to unpack, do the washing, buy food for the week and get some sleep in your own bed. Going straight from the airport to the office on Monday morning compresses the whole return into a few hours, and it rarely feels good.

On the landing day, keep things gentle. A walk, a simple home-cooked dinner, an early night. It's the bridge between the two lives.

Make the first day back light

You won't catch up on everything on day one, so don't try. Plan the first day around:

• Reading, not replying. Skim the inbox to see what's important. Reply to the urgent things only.
• Talking to people. Catch up with colleagues, find out what changed. It's often quicker than reading every message.
• One small task you can finish. Getting one thing done gives the day a shape.
• A normal finishing time. Staying late on the first day sets a bad rhythm for the week.

If you can, block out an hour in your calendar before the meetings start. It gives you time to think before everyone else needs you.

Keep one holiday habit

Holidays often show us things we'd like more of: long lunches, morning swims, reading in the evening, walking everywhere, eating outside. Pick one and bring it home. It doesn't need to be the full holiday version. A lunch outside on Fridays. A morning swim once a week. A book instead of the evening screen. Keeping one thread from the summer makes ordinary life feel a little less ordinary, and our page on keeping habits on holiday works the same idea in the other direction.

Plan the first week realistically

Look at the week ahead and decide what really needs to happen by Friday. Not everything that's been waiting, just the essentials. Write that list and leave the rest for the following week. The backlog will get done; it doesn't all have to get done now.

Also give your evenings a bit of structure. A dinner with friends midweek, a film, something pleasant to look forward to, so that the week isn't only work.

Put the next break in the diary

One reason the return feels flat is that the summer holiday was the big thing on the horizon, and now the horizon is empty. Fix that early. It doesn't need to be another big holiday. A long weekend in October. A day trip by train. A Sunday at the sea while the water is still warm. Having something in the diary makes the autumn feel like a season with things in it, not just the long road to winter.

Be patient with yourself

It can take a little while to feel back in rhythm. Feeling slow, distracted or a bit flat for the first few days is normal. Look after the basics, sleep, food, some movement, and let the routine rebuild itself. Our page on the Sunday-evening feeling has more on the smaller, weekly version of the same dip.