Practical Tips To Stay Productive During The Festive Season
Christmas will be soon here and, whether you’re fully organised or lagging behind, it can be hard to stay motivated after a challenging year and the long, cold winter days (especially if you’re back working from home or ploughing your way through new year job searches)! Here’s our practical tips to stay productive during the festive season.
It’s fair to say the past few years may have presented a range of ups and downs for all of us. Some may be feeling overwhelmed with the additional pressures of Christmas shopping or finishing last minute projects before you switch off for the holidays. Others may be well organised but worn out from a hectic 12 months and struggling to stay motivated in these final few weeks.
Whether you’re in work or looking for something new, now is a great time to make plans for next year and take care of tasks that usually get pushed to the back burner. Here are some ways you can stay motivated and keep on track when your mind starts to wander at work or whilst you’re working for home.
Festive Clean
Take some time and go through your office area, filing cabinet, desktop, email inbox, whatever you store files or information, etc and keep what items you need and discard what you can.
If you’re back working from home or on the hunt for a new job, take some time to spruce up your remote working / job hunting space. Put up a notice board, buy a desk tidy or some new stationery and create an area you’ll enjoy working in!
Plan your diary
Reach out to potential or current clients or customers before the holiday season and arrange your meetings ready for when you return to the office. You could meet virtually this new year, or schedule a simple coffee meet-up and chat about future projects and plans.
If you’re looking for work (or planning to start), book in some New Year appointments with a careers advisor, recruitment consultant or work coach to talk about potential vacancies. Look out for online webinars, virtual careers fairs or in-person job fairs and make a list of what’s coming up.
Create a 2024 Business Plan or Update your CV
As employees begin to wind down in time for the Christmas break, now is the time to take advantage of those quiet afternoons and start to think about what you want to achieve in 2024. It could be really simple or (if you’ve got enough spare time) as complex as you like, perhaps it could be you want to change your social media content or find a new accounts software.
If a new job for 2024 is top of your list, take the time to update your CV or use one of our free CV Templates to get started.
Review Your Goals
Take a look at your goals and see which ones have been accomplished and find dates of completion for your other plans. If you have any unfinished goals, you can add them to the list for next year.
Consider your skills and long-term career aspirations. Do you need to take a course to retrain, upskill or get an official certificate for skills you already have? Why not take a look at National Careers Service Course Finder to locate a free training course happening locally.
Add Variety
Do one thing differently every day. Apply for a Job. Follow a Company on social media. Sign up to a Job Board. Call an old client. Reach out to a new client. Post on LinkedIn every day. Change the way you normally do something. No matter what it is, just try something new!
Making a plan for the last few weeks of the year will help to keep you on track and focused, giving you something to look forward to and giving you a sense of accomplishment as you start 2024.
Don’t forget that towards the end of the year and the start of the next one is a great time to look for work – whether you’re currently unemployed, looking for a step-up or planning a career change.
If you found our practical tips to stay productive during the festive season helpful, check out our advice for starting the New Year well and finding the job that’s right for you: https://stockport-jobsmatch.co.uk/new-year-new-job-new-you/
