The holidays are a wild time of year for every working individual, but especially for the work-at-home-woman. What’s an office by day may very well have to host a New Years Eve party by night. With all this intermingling of professional and personal life during the holiday season, it can be hard to keep things straight and manage your time wisely.
Here’s how to stay organized and manage your time during the holiday season:
1. Share a holiday calendar with your partners
We like to get pretty festive at our company. So much so that we like to partake in a different holiday activity or indulge in a different holiday treat each day of December and through part of January. This has proved to be a great way to get everyone excited to come to work during the holiday season. However, if not organized carefully, certain scheduling conflicts can arise.
If you have employees working in your home with you, or you plan on meeting up with your partners for festive reasons this holiday season, be sure to create a calendar for everyone well in advance. No one wants to miss out on the partner potluck because they weren’t told about it ahead of time and scheduled a meeting.
2. While you’re at it, create a holiday calendar for yourself
Depending on the industry you’re in, the holidays can be an especially busy time of year because business is almost certainly booming. Between business amping up and hosting holiday parties, helping with the kids’ winter recital, and holiday shopping, it’s easy to feel like you’re being pulled in two different directions. Along with the calendar, you’ll be sending to employees or partners that you plan on celebrating with, keep a calendar for yourself with both work-related obligations and personal obligations. During this time of year, it’s not uncommon to need to wrap up work early to catch your child’s end-of-the-year recital. I recommend writing it all out using one color for work obligations, and another for personal obligations.
3. Make lists
Lastly, the tried and true to-do list especially comes in handy this time of year. In fact, I’m making it a New Year’s resolution to make more lists. Start each morning this crazy time of year by sitting down with a cup of tea and writing out everything you need to get done before the end of the day. Not only are you getting to neatly lay out all of your duties in front of you, but crossing those duties off as you go provides a great sense of satisfaction. During especially busy times of the year, don’t get bogged down with long-term goals and just stick to the short-term day by day.
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