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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and you know what that means: a long to-do list of pending work tasks that you must check off before you leave the Office on holiday.
Pre-holiday Stress is a common ‘syndrome’ amongst employees who feel the burden of responsibility coming upon them. It usually starts with one week before leaving for holiday, when you begin to panic and stress that you won’t be able to deliver work in due time.
I personally go through this chaotic phase every year around winter holidays, but I keep on learning from my past mistakes. What experience has taught me so far is that you have to plan ahead, prioritize and try to keep it together as much as possible.
Here’s 5 tips to help you better organize office time and learn to deal with pre-holiday anxiety in the least stressful way.
1. Have Your Cake and Eat it Too
Planning ahead can save you the pain of trying to fit the bits and pieces later.
I’ve learned this the hard way with long evenings at the office, working overtime just because I did not have a clear and realistic view upon my work volume.
If you want to avoid last-minute auto-induced chaos, my best advice is to lay down on paper a very accurate list of pending tasks and their delivery deadlines. Think of it like a grocery buying list that you make every Sunday before you go food shopping. Once you have the to-do list in front of your eyes, you can take it one step further.
2. Set Your Priorities Straight. The Rest Is Just … Snow!
“Instead of stressed, I lie here charmed” – one of my favorite lyrics from Placebo’s iconic “Every You, Every me” song pops in my head whenever I succeed in setting up a list of priorities. Doing this makes me feel like half of the problem has been fixed!
So, no matter if you work independently or in a team, you must learn to prioritize. Look at the to-do list you’ve previously put into place and decide which tasks have a higher priority in terms of urgency and importance.
Focus on matters that really count in order to meet business goals. Also, be sure to double check and set realistic deadlines. Remember: quality over quantity!
3. Team Work Is The Dream Work
We all have a soft spot for superheroes, but this year, refrain yourself from turning into the office superhero, unless you’re planning to spend Christmas Eve at work.
The great thing about working in a team is that everyone gets a piece of the action and together you can build unity. The less exciting part about teamwork is coordination, or better said, the lack of it.
That leads us to tip no.3: set up a meeting and take the time to communicate with your team mates, divide responsibilities and set deadlines. Get everyone working at full speed so you can all take a breather afterwards.
If you fall in the other category, the independent worker, you’ll have to learn to say ‘no’ to people who hand you last-minute tasks. Find a polite way to let them know that, unless their demand is of strict urgency, it can wait after the holidays. Let the Superhero in you rest this time.
If you are looking forward to a stress-free holiday time, then you need to learn to delegate. While you are away, a colleague will be probably taking on some of your work. To make this transition run smoothly, take the time to ‘train’ your coworker on what it’s like to handle your responsibilities for the time being.
Explain each step of the process, offer administrative advice, training for specific tasks and make all the third party introductions necessary.
If your job requires ‘job cards’ or ‘task manuals’, then make sure your replacement knows where to find those, in case of emergency.
Don’t be afraid to delegate responsibility – you’ll enjoy the perks sooner than you expect!
5. Don’t Be The Office Grinch
Watch out for increased level of stress signals that could turn you into the office Grinch: impatience, lack of concentration, uncharacteristic aggressive behavior, inability to make decisions, consistent feeling of inadequacy.
Instead, try to be flexible with your coworkers’ needs and demands, maintain communication and decompress the pressure as to avoid any misunderstandings or even potential hurt of feelings.
Remember that, when under pressure, people react differently than their usual selves. Be empathetic and don’t let stress get to you!
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‘Tis the season to be merry, leave your workplace worries behind and finally learn to enjoy your out-of-office time.
Happy Holidays!
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
About the Author:
Passionate about turning simple ideas into creative stories. Truly in love with storytelling, Ramona Costea has been active in the media writing and publishing business for over 8 years. She is now a Copywriter for Oracle’s Global Recruiting department, where she continues to experiment with social media and improve content strategy. Her specialties include content writing, online marketing, employer branding and social media.
Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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