By: Farin Lesch
Holidays aren’t aging well for the average employee.
Trying to fit in end-of-year projects, to-dos, holiday shopping, and family time has been proven to be stressful. According to a report by Modern Health, 57% of employees consider the holidays to be the most draining time of the year. Knowing that this is how most of the workforce feels, let's break it down to practices we can incorporate during this period to mitigate the stress.
Guard Your Calendar
Many times our calendars get flooded with meetings, and the holidays only make it even more overwhelming with year-end check-ins and parties.
Guard your calendar.
If you know you’re most productive in the morning, block that time off now and dedicate it to your own work. This protects your productive time so you can tackle what’s most important.
Stop Borrowing from Tomorrow
Procrastination is psychological.
We procrastinate tasks that are mundane, stressful, or that we have associated negative feelings toward. However, it’s also a cycle.
When you train your brain to reward yourself for procrastinating, it will continue. Knowing this, we can flip the narrative.
Tackle the work that needs to be done today; you have the time, and you don’t want to borrow it from tomorrow.
No day is ever the same, in life or in work.
Urgent meetings pop up, family emergencies don’t care about your deadlines, and your body isn’t going to wait for you to submit that report to get sick.
Reward yourself with something after you’ve completed a task; if you notice you have the time to complete those pesky to-dos, tackle them now. Your future self will thank you for it.
Embrace a Holiday Routine
Data compiled by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School showed that individuals who are happy increase their productivity by 13%. Establishing a well-grounded holiday routine isn’t just about managing stress, it can be a performance tool!
Knowing that during this time of year we will naturally feel fatigued, stressed, and out of focus, it would be beneficial to sprinkle in a 10-minute break dedicated to recentering yourself.
Embrace an outdoor walk, a quick coffee break, lunch away from your laptop, exercise classes, or practicing gratitude.
A sample routine might include:
Practicing gratitude while making your morning coffee (name three things you’re grateful for).
Combing through your emails, and when you complete a task that you’ve been procrastinating, giving yourself a 5-minute walk.
Jumping back into meetings and briefs.
Having lunch away from your desk.
Closing out your day with something you enjoy.
In total, these small but mighty habits probably take 30 minutes, and they change the aura of your day.
Face the Fun (and the Facts)
Holidays are busy; we can’t give 100% of ourselves to work, family, and self. However, we can try to control what is ours.
We can give ourselves grace and acknowledge the strain this season takes on our minds and bodies, and we can incorporate habits and tools to make it easier on us. I challenge you to pick just one habit to incorporate into your daily routine this week.
Cheers, and have a happy new year!
