How to Improve Your Time Management during the Holidays
Posted December 13, 2013
With the holidays rolling around, are you having difficulties managing your time at work? At this time of year, it’s often more difficult than usual to keep your work-life balance from going completely out the door. Here are a few suggestions for boosting your productivity and improving time management in the workplace and at home!
At Work
- Shut the Door
If you’re finding it hard to get your work done because of chatty coworkers, don’t be shy about shutting your door to discourage interruptions. You really can’t do this all day long, but it’s a useful technique when you need to concentrate for an hour or two.
- Ignore your Technology
If your whole day gets eaten up by answering phone calls and emails, you need to cut yourself off for a while. Let your calls go to voice mail and turn off your email notifications. Schedule three times a day to check and respond to your messages in both places—usually once in the morning, once after lunch and once more before you leave the office.
- Control your Mind
If you find you can’t stop thinking about the million and one things you have to do to get ready for the holidays, keep a pad of paper on your desk and write down each of these to-do’s as they occur to you. Doing so will hopefully get them out of your head so you can stay focused on the task at hand, without fear of forgetting something important.
At Home
- Make a list (or two or three).
It works for Santa! Make it work for you. But instead of dividing your list by naughty and nice, categorize it by things you have to do to prepare for the holiday season, such as gift shopping, and things you want to do, such as special baking. You may be pleasantly surprised by the amount of time that opens up once you’ve crossed a few items off your “must do” list.
- Ask for Help.
Again, it works for St. Nick! He has elves; you have companies you can hire. Instead of doing all of the gift-wrapping, baking and decorating by yourself, patronize a local bakery, hire a cleaning service to clean your home, or even have your holiday party catered. Using the time management strategies of outsourcing and delegation will lighten your workload–and your mood!
- Slow Down and Relax!
Be sure you take some time to actually enjoy the season. And don’t rush through everything. For instance, if you celebrate Christmas, you don’t need to buy, put up, and decorate the tree all in the same day. Stretch it out over a few, or even a week!
For some, the holiday season ’tis the season to be stressed, not jolly. If you’re feeling more frazzled than festive, try these time management skills! And if hiring is on your mind, call the Ambassador Team—that’s one task you can easily delegate to us!
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