Getting Back on Track After the Holidays

The Hol­i­days. Do you ever find your­self won­der­ing if they are worth the effort?

We all love to eat turkey and pump­kin pie, and who doesn’t like to get gifts? But it seems like every where we turn there is another rea­son to take off. Have you ever noticed that at least once a month there is some­thing tak­ing us away from work? Thanks­giv­ing, Christ­mas, Spring Break, Easter, 4th of July, and so many more hol­i­days to dis­tract us from our jobs.

I want ya’ll to under­stand that I am not advo­cat­ing that we put an end to hol­i­days. I real­ize that tak­ing time away is vital to our men­tal and phys­i­cal well-being. So, how can we enjoy our well-deserved rest and relax­ation with­out killing off that won­der­ful hol­i­day “buzz” the minute we return?

The answer is twofold. Pre-plan and post-organize.

Pre-Plan

When my father taught me how to drive, the best advice he ever gave me was to look as far ahead as I could. At first, I stopped look­ing at the cars in front of me in order to focus on the ones far off into the dis­tance. We almost crashed, until my father fur­ther explained his statement.

What is in front of you is impor­tant, but if you cou­ple that aware­ness with the wis­dom to fore­see what is com­ing up, you can pre­vent much disaster.

When you are prepar­ing to leave for the hol­i­days, look ahead to what is hap­pen­ing the week you return, and do some pre-planning to effi­ciently han­dle those activ­i­ties. Pre-planning can involve block­ing out time the day you get back to com­plete a project or giv­ing your­self per­mis­sion to not start some­thing new on that day.

Either way, don’t turn into that fam­ily from Home Alone that was so dis­or­ga­nized that they acci­den­tally left their child to fend for himself.

Post-Organize

Do you jump right back into work before you’ve even fin­ished the pump­kin pie, or do you take a moment to orga­nize your pri­or­i­ties first? Do you feel the need to put out all the “fires” right away, or do you imple­ment a post-holiday plan that will get you back on track and reduce your stress?

You can choose how to man­age your time. Dur­ing the week you return, spend at least 30 min­utes each morn­ing pri­or­i­tiz­ing your day. (Of course, you should be doing this every day already, but if you aren’t, at least do it the week after the holiday.)

Plan and orga­nize wisely and your next hol­i­day will be joy­ful, not stressful.