I took a week off and didn’t dread Monday. Here’s my secret.

Every summer, a group of my closest friends and I spend a week together on Fire Island. At this point in my life, it's an annual tradition and one of the trips I look forward to most.Once we arrive, the schedule is refreshingly simple. We spend long afternoons bouncing between the beach and the pool. Each night, someone takes a turn cooking dinner for the house. We catch up, play games and tell the same stories we've all heard a million times by now. Most importantly, we get a rare chance to reconnect without the distractions of our everyday lives.At least, that's the goal.Because even when I'm physically on vacation, a part of my brain is already thinking about the Monday morning waiting for me back at my desk.It usually starts innocently enough. I'll wonder how a particular meeting went or how a project is tracking. Before long, I'm thinking about the emails, messages and meeting recaps accumulating while I'm away. Inevitably, my relaxing week off has a Monday morning cloud hanging over it.This year, I wanted things to be different. Before leaving for Fire Island, I opened ZoomMate and set up a Return-to-Work Briefing. Work would still keep moving while I was gone, but I felt mor...