After-travel Monday morning dread – and how to avoid it

7 strategies to help overcome the after-holiday Monday morning dread

Let’s set the scene.

You’ve been planning a 2-week trip for the last three months.

The trip was amazing! You walked 20,000 steps per day, saw the most incredible landscapes, and ate the most delicious foods.

And now the trip is over, and you’ve just reached home. It’s late on Sunday night.

You’re due at work in less than 8 hours.

You feel that familiar but weird feeling settling in your chest. It’s not quite sadness, and it’s not quite anxiety.

It’s a very specific deflating feeling of having to return to normality after the most incredible two weeks away.

You’ve glimpsed a different life, a different culture, and you’re wondering when you’ll be able to have those joyful feelings again.

It’s enough to send you into an existential crisis.

If you travel with a full-time job (like me), you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about! It’s almost as if that post-holiday dread is a rite of passage for us workers and travellers.

But it doesn’t have to be.

In all my travels, I’ve learned a few things that have genuinely helped me transition back to reality.

These aren’t just coping strategies, but practical things to make sure we’re not too close to the edge on Monday morning.

Why Post-Holiday Dread Happens (It’s Not What You Think)

There’s an assumption that these post-holiday feelings happen because we miss the destination, and we just don’t like working. I mean, there is probably some truth in that, but it’s also a bit deeper than that.

But the real cause is more specific. It’s the novelty and contrast.

We’re such creatures of habit that we fall into our routines and we just… exist.

When we travel, almost every moment is new. Our brains are engaged, curious and stimulated (sometimes even over-stimulated!)

We are making constant decisions on where to eat, what to see, which direction to walk, and what to try next. We are switched on. And our brains get a little addicted to the dopamine.

And to be fair, after a successful trip, we’re also so proud of ourselves that we went really beyond our comfort zones.

On the flip side, we have work. The same desk, the same emails, the same lunches (what can I say, I am a creature of habit), and the same people.

The contrast between these two states is more than just uncomfortable, it’s kind of disorientating!

Understanding this really does help with adjusting to the contrast when you return home. It also stops us from resigning, because it’s not actually the job you hate,

1. Don’t fly back the day before you return to work

This is honestly the hardest one to implement, I know, I know. I live in Australia, so if I travel overseas, I want to make sure I’m absolutely maximising every single day I have of leave.

But then I was on one trip and the Friday flight was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the ones on Saturday and Sunday. Admittedly, it was because of a low-cost carrier, but as I also try to travel on a low budget, I didn’t hesitate to reduce my holiday by a few days to save so much money.

Flying home on Sunday night and going straight to work on Monday is brutal. We know it, and yet we still do it.

You are jetlagged, your bags are still full of dirty clothes, the fridge is empty, and you’ve had absolutely no time to yourself to decompress and reflect. You arrive at your desk mentally (and physically) exhausted.

So, as much as it hurts, fly back a day earlier.

Give yourself Sunday to potter around your home. Unpack your packs, wash your clothes, buy some groceries, and maybe even go for a walk. Give your brain a day to remember what normal feels like.

You will go to work on Monday feeling much more human, rather than like a hostage.

Yes, it is a day fewer at your destination, but mentally, it’ll be worth it. And besides, if it helps you not quit (because we need the money for our next trip) then even better!

2. Build an end-of-holiday ritual the night before work

Being deliberate about what we do after our holiday can help us to process the holiday and provide a clear break between the activities of being on a holiday and going back to work.

One thing that has helped me avoid the pre-work blues is to have a clear ending of my holiday.

For dinner, the night before I return to work, I will order takeaway food. This is because I want one last evening of relaxation. I’m not quite done with being on holiday.

Look, for those crazy people out there who enjoy cooking, maybe now is a great time to make yourself some of your favourite comfort foods. Cooking can be a really grounding activity in our lives (I just don’t enjoy doing it, so takeaway for me).

Spend time going through all of your photos. Don’t just scroll through them quickly, actually take the time to look at each one and remember the moment you experienced.

Once you’ve spent 20 minutes or so reliving the amazing memories of your trip, back them all up. Honestly, as someone who has been a memory keeper and scrapbooker for over 20 years, back the photos up!!!

Taking the time to look at your photos properly will help turn these experiences into memories you’ve acknowledged, rather than something that’s already slipped away/

Grab a piece of paper and write down at least three moments from your trip that you would like to remember. Just three sentences, even. It doesn’t have to be much.

For only a few minutes of work, writing these moments down will help you get closure on the holiday, rather than it just coming to an abrupt end.

Lastly, lay out your clothes and pack your bag, ready for work the next day. As mundane as this sounds, having everything ready for Monday morning removes some of the friction around it. You want a smooth start to the day, and this can really help with that.

3. Don’t check work emails until you’re actually at work

I mean, this one should be obvious, right?

And I was always guilty of this. But then I realised that I can’t do anything until I get to work anyway, so why am I stressing myself out unnecessarily?!

So, I stopped. And it gave my brain relief.

Don’t stress yourself out by rushing back to work. Whatever is in your inbox will still be there, lurking, and waiting for you to arrive on Monday. So, consider that later you’s problem.

Just remember, the holiday isn’t over until you cross that threshold. Protect your time.

4. Plan something small for the first week back

One reason why the Monday morning dread happens, is because you feel the dull old feeling of getting back on the hamster wheel. You feel like there is nothing to look forward to.

So, plan something to look forward to.

Before you head off on your trip, make plans for something small in the week you return.

I’m not talking about another trip (although that would be nice!)

I’m talking about something small, like having dinner with friends, planning to go see a movie you’ve been waiting for to come out, organise for a day trip on the weekend.

Just something that small that you will be looking forward to, so the long stretch of nothingness doesn’t feel so long.

5. Let yourself have big feelings

You know, it’s ok to have big feelings after a trip. Don’t feel guilty for not being all happy.

You’ve been looking forward to this trip for weeks, or months, or, in the case of when I booked to go to Antarctica, years!

You were just somewhere extraordinary, and now you’re not. You’re allowed to be sad that it’s over because it can really feel like a loss.

Give yourself permission to feel your feelings, because it’s more effective than pretending like they aren’t there. Acknowledge your feelings, sit with them, and then move through them, rather than fighting against them.

Trust me. The more you resist, the worse you’ll feel on Monday morning.

6. Holiday for fuel, not for escape

Ok, so this is more of a long-term strategy for avoiding that post-holiday existential crisis. We really need to change our mindsets around why we travel.

If we travel to escape our regular lives, then of course, returning to our normal lives is going to make us depressed. We return defeated and ready to give it all up. The holiday is over, and we weren’t able to really escape.

But if we start to look at travelling as a way of enriching our regular lives, then our brains won’t feel so lost when it’s over.

Start to think of travelling as a way to experience new perspectives, gain an understanding of the world, encounter new cultures, have adventures, try new foods, and see some of the most incredible things with your own two eyes, then coming home won’t feel so bad.

You will feel rewarded with the experiences you’ve had. You will be able to bring back worldliness, wisdom and understanding with you.

You will be enriched.

It won’t be easy, though, especially if your life feels like it’s something you need to escape from.

But it’s worth asking yourself: is the dread about the holiday ending, or is the dread telling you something needs to change in your everyday life?

7. Start planning the next trip

You knew this was going to be in the list, right? Of course. Because starting to think about your next trip does release some of the weight of coming home.

I’m sure there are research papers out there that conclude that planning for a trip is the happiest you’ll be because you are giving yourself something to look forward to. It’s the anticipation of the unknown that makes our brains happy.

You don’t need to have anything booked just yet, but a few days after you return home, start thinking about the experiences you’ve just had and what the next ones you’d like to try are.

Start thinking about the type of travel you might like to try next (a hike in Nepal, or a beachside resort in Bali, for instance), start looking at destinations (or throw a dart at a map, who knows?!), and think about when your next leave period might be.

These activities might be enough to shift the feeling of ‘the good bit is over’ to ‘the good bit is ongoing’.

Final thoughts

It’s not easy dragging yourself back into work after a holiday, trust me, I’m right there with you. But I have implemented these strategies to help me cope with the return to work.

Try to implement even just one of these ideas next time you plan or return from a trip and see if it helps.

Monday will still come. But it doesn’t have to feel like it’s the end of something.

Where to next?

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Oman: two days exploring Muscat
Delights of Samarkand – Perfect 3 Day Samarkand Itinerary