Last week I told you how to find time for travel, this week I’ll reveal the secrets for travel without worrying about your work. The keys to a work stress free vacation are planning and delegation.

Planning

Four weeks before your vacation, create a list of the tasks that are due before or during your time off.

Create new (earlier) deadlines for tasks that are due during your vacation.

Can you complete all these tasks before you leave? If not, list all the tasks that can be handled by a co-worker.

Negotiate new completion dates for any task that cannot be completed or outsourced to a co-worker.

Even with the best planning there will be unanticipated delays or new tasks that emerge during the last month before your vacation. Take a few minutes to revise your plan each day to ensure you stay on track to your well-deserved respite.

Delegation

Delegating your tasks to other people can be stressful because we all know that no one can do our jobs as well as we do them otherwise we are expendable, right?

Wrong, there are no indispensable people in the world, everyone is replaceable but you’re a capable employee, well-respected and your boss knows that you earned this vacation. Time to delegate, split the tasks into two lists:

Delegate Down. Either elevate a team member to perform your supervisory role or distribute tasks amongst the team. The increased responsibility is a vote of confidence in their abilities and an opportunity to further their careers.

Delegate up. Some responsibilities cannot be delegated down and need to be reallocated across the management team. Meet with your supervisor, discuss your list and agree a plan for each of them, either delegated to a peer or to your supervisor.

One final task, set up the out of office rules on your email with a list of the responsible persons if they need immediate assistance. Leave a similar message on your voice mail or redirect your phone to a colleague. The work is in good hands, now you just have to enjoy yourself.

Increased connectivity through cell phones, computer networks and email has made us more productive but at a cost. We are working longer hours, and creating an on call culture where employees are in constant contact with the office.

I’ll take some time off when this project is complete.

If the company can let me take three weeks off they probably do not need my position.

It is too hard to catch up after a long vacation.

These are just a few of misnomers that keep people in the office rather than recharging their batteries for the year ahead. A study prepared by the Families and Work Institute, Overwork in America, found that over a third of employees do not plan to use their full vacation entitlement. How do you avoid being part of this terrible statistic?

The simple answer is planning, look at your schedule and determine the optimum time to take your vacation and get your boss to approve the time off.

Block the time off in your calendar, and decline or reschedule any requests for your time during your planned vacation.

Book your travel as soon as possible after agreeing the vacation plan with your manager. He will be less inclined to cancel your vacation when you have invested money in your plan.

Next week: How to Enjoy your Vacation without Worrying about Work.