👩🏻‍💻 by Hailley Griffis

Before any extended time off — a vacation, a sabbatical, parental leave — I “click save” on work: one note that captures where every project stands, the conversations I’ll want to re-read, and a place to drop ideas while I’m away. When I come back, I open this note first instead of trying to reconstruct my job from memory. Twice now I’ve paired it with deleting all of my emails while I was out.

Duplicate this to your own Notion space to get started. There is a button at the top right. Duplicate the “Post-vacation notes” section for each leave.

Two weeks before you leave

Start the note early. Things come up in the last two weeks that you’ll want written down.

• [ ] Create this note and start filling in Section 1 as projects wrap or pause
• [ ] Tell the people you email regularly that you’ll be offline and (if you’re doing it) deleting emails — a line in your email signature works well
• [ ] Ask a teammate to keep a running list of key meeting recordings and announcements for you
• [ ] List your recurring reminders (Section 4), then remove their due dates the day you leave
• [ ] The day before: set the Gmail delete filter and the auto-reply (see the Email System template)

Post-vacation notes: [dates]

1. Project context

For each active project, be specific — not “check on the launch” but the direction when you left, the decisions that were pending, and what you want to focus on when you’re back.

2. Important conversations

Links to Slack threads, internal memos, docs, or your own notes you’ll want to re-read for context.

3. Random thoughts while away

Ideas about work that pop up during time off go here, so they’re captured and then out of your head.