The holiday season is underway and many people are getting ready to switch off from work and head off for a well-earned break. Perhaps you've already have had a break.

During your last few days at work, do you tend to leave work on time or do you end up working late, trying to get everything finished before you go off on holiday?

Are you likely to end up dumping it all on a colleague's desk with a sigh of relief? More difficult when it's your own business, where you might just leave everything and hope for the best.

Would you rather avoid the last minute chaos and rush of activity before you finish work, feeling guilty or needing to carry on working while you're away?

7 Tips to avoid overload before your holiday

If you're one of the many people who end up working longer and longer hours, multi-tasking and juggling different priorities before you go, here are a few tips to help you ease into your holiday in a calm, more productive way.

1. PLAN AHEAD. Get a head start. You know your holiday are coming up, usually well in advance. Don't leave things to the last minute. Start planning a minimum of two to three weeks before you go. You have to time to plan and organise when you think and plan ahead. Write things down as you think of them, so you have a checklist to work from.

2. PRIORITISE. If you're under pressure and pushed for time, you won’t be able to get everything done before you go. You’ll need to prioritise. Focus on what absolutely hasto be done before you leave. Avoid getting distracted or taking on new work when you know you don't have time. It’s no good realising there's something important that needs doing on the last day (see 1). Negotiate any changes in delivery dates if you need to push them back because of a holiday.

Note: Factor this in when you first agree delivery dates, especially if you have a tendency to underestimate.

3. DON'T OVERBOOK. Avoid having too many meetings, appointments or delivery dates in your final week. You'll only end up with more follow-ups and action you won’t have time for. Plan for a quieter week if you want to avoid the last minute chaos before your holiday.

Include social commitments. Allow time to organise things at home, plan your trip and pack. Unless you're happy to just throw everything in a case and hope for the best.

4. DELEGATE. This is a good strategy normally but even more important when you’re away from the office.

• Who's going to handle your work while you’re away?
• Who’s going to answer any calls?
• Do you need someone to respond to emails or look after your clients and customers?

Switch on your voicemail and set up an ‘out of office’ message. Something to add to your pre-holiday checklist.

If you expect a lot of phone calls – consider using a call answering service, especially if it's your own business and you don't have anyone to delegate to. They'll take care of things while you’re away - book appointments, take messages. You won’t miss any business opportunities and have one less thing to worry about. They can also handle calls and free up your time when you're not on holiday.

5. HANDOVER. Give your team and colleagues enough notice and sufficient time to pick up any work while you're away (See 1.) Make sure they've got the time and resources to take this on and you don't end up overloading them.

Create clear, concise handover notes or status updates for them.

When it's your own business you don't always have anyone to handover to, so work either stops while you're away or you take it with you.

In either case, make sure you have good systems and processes in place so business keeps ticking over while you're away. Have important information accessible, so it's not in your head and people have to contact you while you're away.

6. COMMUNICATE – let your team, clients and customers know when you’re going to be away and for how long.

Give them time to respond if there's anything you're expecting and need to complete work before you go (See 1).

Include details of who to contact in your Out Of Office message - voice and email. (See 4. and 5.)

7. AVOID WORK while you’re on holiday! Unless this is from choice rather than necessity. Given the ease and flexibility of remote working, you might intend to work while you're away. Check and agree this with your partner, family, holiday companions if that's the case.

You need to be able to take a proper break and switch off while you're on holiday. A cursory check of emails may be all that's needed. Let your team or clients know you won’t be contactable or limited times when you can, especially if you're in a different timezone.

Are you really indispensable or do you need better resources and processes in place that you can rely on to pick up in your absence.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should be able to be contacted 24/7. Especially when you're on holiday. After all, you may be somewhere remote without access to wi-fi or mobile coverage! I know!

If you’re in the habit of spending much of your ‘holiday’ working you may need to look at your time habits, boundaries and priorities.

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