Out of office planner — free printable pre-leave handover sheet

Genuinely switching off on annual leave — rather than half-working from your sun lounger or dreading the inbox you'll come back to — usually comes down to how well you prepare before you go, not willpower once you're away. A clear handover is the single biggest factor: making sure ongoing tasks and deadlines that fall while you're away are clearly assigned to someone covering, with enough context that they can actually handle things without needing to contact you. Vague handovers ('just keep an eye on things') tend to result in either your cover being unable to help properly, or you getting messaged anyway because nobody's clear on what's needed — both defeat the purpose of taking leave. Tying up loose ends before you go — sending those last few emails, rescheduling or delegating meetings that would otherwise fall while you're out, flagging anything urgent clearly — means there's less unfinished business nagging at you once you're actually away. Setting a proper out-of-office message and genuinely trusting your cover (rather than checking in 'just in case') is part of actually disconnecting, and is fairer to your cover too, who can't do their job well if you're still half-involved. On the return side, it helps enormously to plan your first day back deliberately: knowing what to check first, having a catch-up booked with key people rather than guessing what happened, and if your workplace allows it, building in a buffer day between returning and diving into a packed schedule, which makes the transition back far less jarring. Leave is genuinely more restorative when you can properly switch off — the preparation that makes that possible is well worth the extra half hour beforehand.

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Yes — print as many copies as you need.