Here’s 5 tips on staying focused during the busiest time of the year
“Tis the season to be busy!” December is here and so is the hustle and bustle of the holiday season! There’s gift shopping, work Christmas parties, back and forth messages between family members, trying to make it to the gym, general errands, cleaning, caring for your kids, and let’s not forget the 9 – 5 work grind!
For many of us, there are still a few more weeks left until we’re officially allowed to switch over into holiday mode, which means we need to keep our focus! Here are 5 tips that can help you keep your focus leading up to the Christmas holidays:
- Keep personal and work tasks separate
Trying to find the time to complete all the tasks on your to-do-list can be hard, especially during the holiday season. It’s always tempting to mix both personal tasks in with your work tasks, but by doing this, it will cause your thought processes to scatter, preventing you from focusing on important daily work tasks. Instead, keep personal and work tasks separate. Go to work and only focus on your work tasks and prioritise time before or after work to complete your personal tasks.
- Ask family and friends to respect your work hours
Christmas is a time for families and friends to come together and spend time with one another, but there is always a lot of planning involved prior to the holiday season. A few phone calls here and a few messages there can add up to many minutes or hours that you can’t get back from your work day. Ask your family to respect your work hours and to only call or message in the morning, evening or even the weekend. If some family members are really persistent in trying to contact you, place your phone on silent in a desk draw and forget about it until you finish your work tasks – you’ll find you can get so much work done without the distraction of your phone going off!
- Organise your day before it starts
Juggling Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, general house duties, kids, pets and work can sometimes make you feel stressed and anxious that you can’t get it all done in time. Try putting aside 5 minutes of your morning to organise your day and create a time schedule for all of your tasks. This will help you complete everything you need to get done and also help you stay focused on the task at hand instead of stressing about what you need to get done or what to do next.
- Use your weekends wisely
If weekends aren’t already your best friend, then they definitely will be during the holiday season! Although many of us like to kick back and do absolutely nothing on the weekend, use your weekends wisely during December to smash out that to-do-list. This will allow you to free up some time during the week to solely focus on your work. But don’t push yourself too hard on the weekends! Make sure you’re also allowing yourself to rest and reset for the week ahead. Use weekends wisely, but don’t overdo it!
- Take care of yourself
There are many emotions flying high during the holiday season – happiness, excitement, joy, stress, anxiety, tiredness etc. People are rushing around left, right and center trying to organise everything before going on work holidays and many of us are trying our best to stay focused on wrapping up our work tasks for the year. However, as busy as you may feel, remember to take the time to take care of yourself. Making sure you’re eating healthy, exercising frequently and calving out time to meditate and reflect on the year gone will make you feel less anxious and stressed, helping you to keep up with everything going on around you.
December is always an exciting month – its the last month of the year, work holidays are only just around the corner, and Christmas day is not far away! Although its super exciting, make sure you are taking all the steps possible to stay on track and focused on your work. Your boss will thank you for it, or if you’re your own boss, you’ll thank yourself – as getting everything done in time for Christmas means zero work over your work holiday! Happy focusing and happy holidays!
