The holiday season has come and gone, and while you may have been waiting with candy canes in hand, to be set free from your job, the time has arrived: you must go back at work.

It’s always difficult to return to work after a long time apart, especially after the winter holidays that are full of heavy foods, empty wallets, and stressful family members. You may find yourself overwhelmed when you return with sugarplums still dancing in your head and piles of work to catch up on. If you find yourself needing some help, check out these tips.

• Catch up with your emails. If you work in an office setting, you know how quickly emails can pile up and how crushing it is to see triple digits in your inbox. The first thing you should do when returning to work is sift through what’s important, what can wait, and what can be deleted. Then you can respond to the emails you need to and catch up on and information you may have missed out on. Being in the loop again can really help get the stress down.

• Leave yourself notes. Before leaving for a vacation, it helps to write down what you were working on last, certain things you need to remember, people you need to talk to, or issues you need to work out and leaving it for your future self to find. Put them in a small notebook in your mailbox or on sticky notes on your desk so you can come back to them later and pick up where you left off.

• Remind yourself of what you like about work. It may be your favorite coworker, the vending machine that always gives you two bags of donuts, or even the mysterious person who always refills the coffee pot in the break room. Surrounding yourself with things you enjoy can help ease the process of getting back to work. You can also preemptively do this by wearing your most comfortable shoes or bringing a homemade lunch from holiday leftovers.

• Get plenty of sleep. WebMD points out that sleep is most often unregulated during vacation time, especially when alcohol is involved. Before and while going back to work, make an effort to get your sleep schedule back on track so you can wake up refreshed and ready to contribute to society again.

• Start looking forward to your next vacation. It may seem counter-productive, but remembering the holidays to come will help tremendously to get over your post-December funk. Think of Martin Luther King Day, just around the corner, or Presidents Day and Good Friday, which you may have off as well. Depending on how many vacation days you have stacked up, you may even be able to take some personal leave whenever you want.

Enjoy your vacations as they come to you, but be responsible with yourself and your work when you return. These tips will, hopefully, help you take measures to ensure that you can prepare yourself for a regular work schedule again.

Have you realized that returning to work after vacation is a dreaded act because you are not happy at your current job? Do not fret, there are a ton of new opportunities waiting on you.

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