Career Contessa 3 in 30: How to Prep for PTO and Actually Enjoy Your Vacation
Nov 18, 2025
Career coach Marnie Lemonik joins the discussion, offering her expertise on how to maximize your paid time off. They explore using AI tools for a seamless post-vacation catch-up, ensuring your team knows what to expect, and the importance of clear communication before PTO. Marnie emphasizes reframing vacations as integral to long-term career success and mental well-being. They also discuss the challenges of unplugging and share strategies to help you truly relax while away.
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A 10-Day Vacation That Didn’t Break Work
- Lauren took a 10-day vacation and expected to keep working but ended up mostly unplugged.
- She returned without inbox panic and reduced catch-up time from about a week to 24 hours using AI and systems.
Use AI To Shrink Post-PTO Catch-Up
- Use AI to instantly summarize missed threads, docs, and meeting notes when you return from PTO.
- Ask AI to create a one-day reboarding checklist so you focus on high-priority tasks and skip noise.
Record Meetings And Auto-Summarize Status
- Let meeting-recording AI (e.g., Loom AI) attend meetings and capture notes while you’re away.
- Use messaging and doc AIs (Slack, Confluence, or vendor tools) to compile project status: done, blocked, and in progress.