Business owners and busy professionals look forward to the holidays each year, but they also dread them because they know the pressure to meet year-end goals will be just as strong as the desire to spend time with their friends and family. While there is no simple answer, there are a few steps busy, goal-oriented people can take to enjoy the holidays in spite of year-end business goals.
Take a step back, and make a plan
It may be hard to take a breather from everything you feel you have to accomplish at work and at home, but the first step toward making any progress is to take a break, reassess, and move forward with a detailed plan. Maybe the goals you set at the beginning of the year are no longer as feasible as they were, so you need to rearrange priorities and work toward more realistic year-end business goals. In your personal life, perhaps you can skip a few of the holiday parties that aren’t as fun as others to allow yourself more time with friends and family. By looking at what you really need to accomplish and scheduling time to do it, you’ll know that you are on the path to enjoying the holidays and meeting your goals.
Once your plan is in place, focus on work until you hit the deadline you set for taking your well-deserved vacation. In the meantime, if you need to get your home ready for the holidays but won’t have time to do it yourself, plan to decorate and wrap gifts after your work deadline. By allowing yourself to wait until you have time, you take off some of the pressure, and you’ll enjoy your time off even more without having work hanging over your head.
You also can hire out some of the holiday preparations that you don’t enjoy to give yourself more time to meet your year-end goals. There’s nothing wrong with asking a local baker to make your cookies, a neighborhood deli to make your holiday meal, or a housekeeper to give your home the deep cleaning that you don’t have time to do.
Keep employees on task
If you are a manager or a business owner, you know that another challenge that comes at the end of the year is keeping your employees engaged and motivated. It’s tougher for you to meet year-end goals when those who work for you or with you aren’t focused on meeting them. The worst thing you can do is pretend the holidays are not upon you, because it makes it seem as though you’re not in tune with your employees. Do something special for your workers to acknowledge the season; they’ll appreciate the sentiment, and they’ll work harder to achieve goals because of it.
Use productivity apps
You also need to know how to stay focused yourself during the holidays. The closer you get to the end of the detailed plan you created, the more difficult it may be to keep your nose to the grindstone as your mind wanders to holiday time with your loved ones. Productivity apps may be the answer, and you can share them with your employees as well. General productivity apps like Evernote are popular with busy professionals, and they keep you connected and productive whether you are on your laptop or your mobile device.
Enjoying the holidays in spite of year-end goals is possible if you take a hard look at what your priorities are, make a detailed plan for achieving them, keep your teammates on task, and keep your own productivity on track. Before you know it, you’ll be marking off your last task and heading home to enjoy the season with loved ones.
Do you want to keep your business’s success on track all year long with a team of passionate content marketing experts? Contact the Entraspark team today.