Whether you get several days off or just one or two, holiday vacation is something everyone looks forward to. However, always looking forward to vacation can make it reeeeally hard to stay focused on working until you can take off. But don’t worry! There are some simple rules to remember to stay productive at work before the holidays.
Flickr user Fearless Fred
1. Don’t Try To Do Too Much
You might be tempted to try and cram ALL of the work that you’d be doing during your time off into your last few days, but it won’t work. Period. You’ll get burned out. Spread out your work over a week or two before you take time off and you’ll be glad later.
2. Keep Work Time Focused On Work
There are probably going to be plenty of distractions during your last several days in the office before the holidays, with parties and decorations and everyone counting down the minutes. But don’t let yourself get too distracted while you’ve still got work to do, or you’ll end up coming to the last day of work with a ton of unfinished tasks.
3. Don’t Take On Big New Projects
This might seem kind of intuitive, but as people start to take time off your office might get a little quieter, and you might think that now’s the time to get ahead on that next big project. Don’t fall into the trap! It’s likely that you could get stuck having to do extra work over the holidays to finish what you start, and that’s the opposite of what you want!
4. Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
This is a good idea for staying productive ANY day, really, but during those last days before holiday vacation it’s especially important. Work out what your most pressing tasks are and attack them first - it’s also a good way to leave your very last day before vacation on an easy note, rather than a stressful one.
5. Set Goals For Each Day
The goes hand in had with prioritizing and avoiding cramming all your work into a few days. Figure out a reasonable amount of work you can get done in one day, and then just do that. If you end up getting way ahead of your goal, then you can get started on something else. But if you don’t, that’s okay!
6. Get Enough Sleep!
Sleep is crucial to staying productive all the time, but before the holidays it’s even more important. There’s a lot of added stress during this time of year, and getting enough sleep is the key to pushing through all the things you have to get done. So don’t skimp!
What other tactics do you use to stay productive at work before the holidays? Tell us in the comments below!
