The hectic holiday season usually comes with plenty of distractions that can make it hard to focus at work. You may be dreaming of sugar plums and presents when you should be focusing on the task at hand.
As difficult as it may be to focus on your responsibilities at work, you can make the most of the last few weeks of the year by keeping your tasks firmly set in your mind.
Initially published through Forbes Coaches Council
Below, 15 members of Forbes Coaches Council offer their best advice for staying focused and on-task at work during the busy holiday season. Here’s what they recommend:
1. Schedule Time For The Fun Stuff
Rather than squeezing in time for family and friends, make time to enjoy the holiday season. Schedule time to shop, brunch and other activities that make the season enjoyable so that, when you sit down to work, you are not preoccupied with thoughts of sneaking away. It should also help to eliminate the guilt of having those fun days because you know you’ve planned time to complete your work. – LaKesha Womack
, Womack Consulting Group
2. Prioritize And Set Expectations
The holidays are a time to connect and celebrate, yet work demands increasingly compete for time. There are two keys to tackling this season: prioritize and set expectations. First, prioritize the schedule, say “no” to meetings that eat up valuable work time and say “yes” to chunking time to focus and execute. Second, set expectations with co-workers for uninterrupted time or collaboration time. – Carry Metkowski, Carry Metkowski
3. Develop Better Communication Skills
Talking is not the same as communicating and not everyone sends and receives communication in the same way. Ineffective communication can lead to procrastination, unaccomplished goals, poor scheduling abilities, lack of effective delegation and interruptions. Watch a webinar on behavioral styles and their communication preferences so you can communicate more effectively at work. – Kathi Graham-Leviss, XBInsight, Inc.
4. Set A Holiday Battle Plan
Before you quit for the evening, make a list of five things that support your immediate objectives for the holiday season and be okay with just getting the first two or three done. It’s the holidays, so give yourself a break and still feel good about what you accomplished, because you are focused and directed internally to get your tasks done. – Mitch Russo, Mindful Guidance, LLC
5. Don’t Lose Your Productive Routines
Most often, people get off track during the holiday season because they make excuses for distractions and time suckers in which they wouldn’t normally engage; eating too much can cause havoc with your body and you may lose sleep, and staying up later results in less energy the next day and, then, less productivity. While you can enjoy the holidays, be mindful of what your “extra” activities may cost. – Cha Tekeli, Chalamode, Inc.
6. Distinguish Between Urgent And Important
At year-end, projects come due right when we’re at our busiest outside of work. To meet your commitments and stay sane, laser-focus on mission-critical activities. To help prioritize, expand your thinking beyond end-of-year deadlines to what will have the biggest impact in the longer term. Are you cramming stuff in just to get it done? Distinguish between truly important activities and those that feel urgent. – Caroline Adams, Career Change, Transition, and Advancement
7. Don’t Overcommit
If you are an overachiever like me, you will want to do everything during the holidays. The fact is you just can’t. Pick key events, parties and engagements to avoid burnout. Stay focused by not overcommitting. It’s a fantastic time of year to network, but prioritize your events based on ROI. You still have deadlines to meet and customers to please, so be realistic and don’t forget to have fun. – Erin Urban, UPPSolutions, LLC
8. Take ‘Mini-Holidays’
During November and December, for the first or the last 30-60 mins of my workday, I drink coffee with eggnog, light candles and play holiday music I like. I give myself the gift of reading a book at least once a week during working hours, snuggled up with a cozy blanket and tea. I am still working, but I have a focus on reflection, learning and self-care. This is my gift to myself. – Courtney Feider, Courtney Feider, LLC
9. Establish Positive Habits
The holidays are crazy, as the work and commitments are piled up. You need to create and maintain positive habits to manage the stress that will come from it. Plan your goals for November and December, be conservative and concentrate on the big rocks. Then, leave a lot of empty space in your planning to handle the upcoming unknowns. Be diligent, limit your commitments and be prepared for the rush. – Tony Mickle, Big Box Coaching
10. Know Your Limits And Set Boundaries
Knowing your limits and setting boundaries are key steps for managing holiday stress and overwhelm. Stephen Covey’s four quadrant tool will help you prioritize your to-dos, giving you focus and a roadmap to follow. Now you have clearly defined priorities to communicate with your team and colleagues. – Christine J. Culbertson (Boyle), Coach Christine: Building Business, Leaders and BIG Lives
11. Choose Your Distractions
Creating a routine and following it consistently creates physiological energy spikes that can fuel us to power through a particular task in spite of distractions. Repetition of the routine trains our brain to reproduce that focus and keeps us operating at our peak. Distractions come in all shapes and sizes and often without warning. Be mindful of when you are most productive. Then, knuckle down. – Tracey Grove, Pure Symmetry Coaching and Consulting
Meet Coach Christine
Christine coaches with ROI top-of-mind. Many companies who leverage her coaching produce quick and long-lasting results transforming people, processes and culture, impacting their bottom line. Clients have seen upward of 200% ROI.
Her time with clients generates powerful results in:
- Business and Personal Development
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Watching and learning at the feet of titans of Canada’s Wall Street and other business leaders, Coach Christine was influenced by their success and built a corporate career and coaching business founded on proven business practices.
She is an award-winning business woman and contributor to Forbes publications; is an accredited coach with the ICF; a practitioner of Conscious Business practices; is certified by the IMPACT: Coaching with ROI program; holds her First and Second Degree Reiki and has studied Aboriginal healing for over 20 years. Christine loves the adventure of travel and has a knock-out collection of snazzy women’s shoes.
When you want more, are ready to bust obstacles and build your juicy, big life, contact me, Coach Christine Culbertson.