Before you get vacation or holiday brain...

It’s the holiday season! Beginning in November it seems like we push off the started block and push hard until the end of the year. We have our personal needs that grow with additional errands, gift giving, parties, get togethers, decorating. And then we still have our business daily to-do lists as well as work get togethers, parties, year end tasks and the “biggy” – goal setting. 

Somehow through all of this, once the calendar flips to January 1 we have great (yet false) excitement that a huge mind shift will happen, there will be no conflicts, all our work will be complete, and our offices will be organized by the holiday elves. Not to make light of this thought, because we all have them. 

Before you get “holiday brain” or “vacation brain” I would encourage you to take a few minutes each day leading up to your time away from the office and prepare yourself and your space for the new year. A few minutes daily (15-20 minutes each day) can lead to big and sustainable progress. A few things you can do right now to make the new year start off with so much gusto are:

• Detoxing your office swag from the past year: Maybe some of the coffee mugs and stress balls could find new homes.
• Cleaning your office: get out the dust rag and the vacuum cleaner and clean up your space that you spend so much time in.
• Restock the supplies you need and use every day: restock your copy paper supply, pens, and post-its along with any other supplies you’re low on.
• Prepare your calendar for the new year: whether you use a paper or digital calendar, now is a great time to review commitments that you have coming soon and think through if you’ve left enough buffer time for travel and prep for any meetings. It’s also a good idea to decide if your commitments are still as important as they once were. Now is a great time to cancel or reschedule if needed. 
• Set up an organizer: One of the top 10 goals that people report having is cleaning out their file cabinets and getting rid of their paper piles while getting organized. To not only gather the piles of paper we all have, but to tackle and organize them in one place that makes it easy for you to see exactly what you need to accomplish each day when you come into the office. Wouldn’t also be great if we could add in our personal tasks and papers as well? 

I’d like to propose a very do-able action you can take right now and not to do anything more until January 10. And even then, we’re going to ease into it 😊 If you’re ready to set up an organizer, I offer a really good one that is super simple, straight forward, and customizable to your needs. It’s called Piles to Files. And it’s just that, a step-by-step approach that will take you from feeling embarrassed and frustrated in your office paper chaos to feeling organized and confident in your ability to quickly identify when tasks are due and easily complete tasks while increasing your productivity.

All of these actions can be taken little by little as you ease into vacation or holiday brain. They mean seem like small actions but are big steps to mental and visual clarity and being prepared for your day. 15-20 minutes daily can really add up and it may even become a habit that you enjoy!

If you’re ready to get started on an organizer or any other organization tips, I invite you to check them out at: https://www.virtualofficeadvantage.com/store