Once the holiday season begins, the office empties out and everyone’s mind is anywhere but on work. While some people save up their vacation time to use during December, others choose to work through it. If you’re someone still putting in their hours this holiday season, use these tips to ensure you stay motivated and get your work done.
Write a list of goals
In order to ensure you’re getting everything you need completed, right yourself a list of goals each week of what you want to accomplish. This will help keep your work focused and ensure the most important things are being finished. When goals are written down, it makes them seem a little more concrete, and crossing things off your list helps you to feel accomplished.
Tune out distractions
Office parties and holiday music the holiday season is also full of distractions. In order to stay productive, do your best to tune them out. If needed, invest in a pair of noise cancelling headphones to keep yourself on task. If you must attend holiday parties, put a limit on your time spent there. Instead of staying for the full hour or three hours, determine ahead of time how much time you can give and leave once you hit the mark.
Use the gatherings for networking
The holidays are full of parties, cocktail hours, potluck lunches and family get togethers. While these can be fun and you should use them as a chance to de-stress, they’re also a great time to network. Aim for a mix of business and pleasure with these types of events, and be sure to make the rounds and have conversations with everyone you can. This way, you’re maximizing your time to ensure you reap all of the benefits of every event.
Play catch up
Because so many people are on vacation this time of the year, work tends to slow down a bit. Instead of using the free time to put your feet up, use it to catch up and get ahead. Finish all of those little tasks you’ve been pushing off for the past few weeks. If you get caught up and still don’t have anything new to work on, get ahead! Look at your schedule and determine how you can work to get yourself ahead for the new year. While it seems like a waste now, you’ll thank yourself once everything kicks back up and you find yourself swamped.