Many business owners will tell you that the weeks leading up to Christmas are often among the most stressful of the entire year. It seems like everything goes into overdrive as you try to get everything done for 2015 and prepped for 2016 — not to mention your schedule filling up with Christmas events, office dos, and family time. If you’re feeling like time is getting away from you as the year draws to a close, try some of our tips for saving time during the holidays:
Set clear goals
Without clear goals, it’s really easy to do a lot without actually accomplishing a lot, so make sure that you take the time to set very clear goals of exactly what you want to accomplish by Christmas. Before you start every day, take just a minute or two to do the same thing for your day. Just check in to make sure that your tasks are taking you closer to your goals, get rid of any that aren’t, and of course …
Prioritise like crazy
There’s no point running yourself into the ground doing things that aren’t really all that important, so make sure you have a very good sense of the things that absolutely have to get done, the things that would be great but not necessary to get done, and the things that you can let slide. You might be surprised by how many things you can actually get off your plate when you think about what really matters in the next few weeks!
Automate, automate, automate
There are so many different things that you can automate now, from sending invoices to ordering your shopping for the week, so take advantage of things like this to save you time both at work and in your home life. This is especially important for things that you hate doing, things that take up a lot of time, and things that you know you’re going to have to do over and over again — and while there is usually a cost, the returns you get in time and sanity are usually more than worth it.
Take the pressure off
It’s tempting to try and cram in more and more as you get towards the end of the year, trying to get “just that one last thing” done. But getting those last little things done isn’t worth it if you’re too knackered by the end of the year to enjoy your holidays. So the next time you’re feeling like you absolutely have to get it all done right now, take a breath and get some perspective. It will all be there when you get back, so give yourself a break.
What are your best tips for saving time around Christmas? Tell us in the comments below!
