When we’re on holiday, many of us find it difficult to avoid all email. We need to check email for flight delays and hotel confirmations, but that also exposes us to work emails that can ruin our mood. Set up a holiday-only email to stay in touch and avoid stress.
Photo by Jim Larrison
While you could use a Gmail alias to separate work and holiday emails, they will often still go to the same inbox. Harvard Business Review has a great idea on how to stay in touch and still avoid problem emails:
Set up a vacation email address. It’s hard to avoid your work email while you’re on vacation if opening your inbox is the only way you can access certain information or check if there’s a crisis with a key client. You may find it easier to avoid peeking if you set up a separate account to use during vacations. Share the address only with the people you really want to stay in touch with while you’re away (like your spouse, house-sitter, or travelling companions). Use mail rules and filters on your work account to automatically forward any travel-related emails to this address (flight confirmations, for example), as well as any key messages (like any email message from a key client or from the company CEO). Just make sure you don’t reply to messages from your secret address, or share that address with more than a couple of people, or it defeats the whole purpose.
Hit the link for other tips for minimising work intrusions on your holiday.
The Right Way to Unplug When You’re on Vacation [Harvard Business Review]
Comments
One response to “Set Up A Holiday Email Address To Avoid Work While You’re Away”
Most people have separate work and private email addresses, so there is no need for another one just for holidays – assuming your holidays are booked using your private email address. If you forward work emails into your private mailbox, then simply stop the forwarding for the duration of the holiday. It really isn’t difficult, and there is no need to complicate it with extra addresses..