5 ways to stay productive during the holiday season
The festive season is here, and the air is ripe with a mixture of panicked planning and rising anticipation. The cities seem to reflect the excitement by lighting up their annually brought out tuni-lights, and maybe it’s just the imagination, but the air begins to smell of freshly baked goodies that have your stomach constantly rumbling.
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But for those of us at work, trudging through our responsibilities through the sleuth of the holiday season, things aren’t as cheery as we’d like them to be. Distractions are abound, in the form of endless projects, edgy bosses, and the occasional co-worker taking holidays every odd day of the week.
Although it’s terrifying easy to give into the pull of the holiday season and deal with the over-spilling pile of workload in the New Year, we have to tug on our reins and say rooted to the desk. We need to save ourselves from the pain of rebukes from our bosses and overworked unpaid hours in 2017.
On the note of holidays, Marian Morgan, a productivity coach tells Forbes, “Colleagues and managers may be on vacation. It can be extremely difficult to get things done and maintain a high level of productivity when people (especially decision makers) are out of the office. And the workflow subsequently slows down.”
To this end, here’s a list of ways by which one can remain productive during the delightful madness of the holiday season.
Fix up your work itinerary
The most important thing to do when it comes to streamlining your daily work to go in line with the distractingly cheery environment is to fix up what you need to do way ahead. Create a work itinerary at the beginning of each week and follow it to the bone. At the end of each week, make sure to check off each day’s items, so that you know you’ll be meeting your deadlines and targets, without getting waylaid by all the holiday planning. When you have a plan to follow, it’s relatively easier to get your work done systematically.
Stay off the internet
The internet is your greatest avenue to having some serious ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) this holiday season. Working as a tease, Facebook, Instagram, and even Snapchat will show you all the events you’re missing out on and all the fun that your friends are gracious enough to ensure that you know about. You’ll spend hours scrolling through your feed, wishing you were a part of the selfies, and as a result, sadistically ignore the work lying ahead of you. So as hard as it may be, stay off the internet until you’re ready to take off and join in all the fun!
Do not make commitments which clash
The holiday season entails several post-work dinners and other obligatory events because everyone is in the mood to celebrate. Even if you say no to four out of ten invites, you still have to show up to the other six. So start planning smartly. If you have an early evening ‘scene’ on a Tuesday, then make sure you get ahead of that day’s work on Monday and stay in late. If your plans are clashing with your work timings, then don’t RSVP because you don’t want to end up having to choose between your project and your aunt’s special mutton curry. Make your plans around your work-schedule, not the other way around.
Take on a realistic work load
When you know that you have a million things to do before the onslaught of Christmas – gifts, party planning, and more last-minute-stress-induced errand-running – then make sure that you have enough time to dedicate to each of these tasks at a hundred percent. To this end, you should only take on work that you know you can complete within a fixed deadline. This gives you enough time to turn your attention towards your personal responsibilities. Do not take on more work than you can chew, be realistic and carve out a plan which enables a balance between the two.
Start working on year-end projects early
You know that the holiday season is a hectic one. The mood in the office also tends to be slightly lighter, considering everyone wants to join in on the festivities outside the company walls. To make sure that you don’t end up knee-deep in work at the outbreak of the festive season, you should aim to try and complete your year-end projects as early as possible. This way you have some leeway into flexible timings on the important days and, most importantly, can actually have some fun without anything holding you back!
On this note, we’d like to wish you an advanced merry Christmas and a very happy New Year for the upcoming week. Have the best one!
