Stay Productive During the Holidays

With the holidays approaching, I thought I would take the time to share how I stay productive during the busy holiday season.  Christmas is coming up on Sunday.  I, like most entrepreneurs, will be working through the holidays.

It’s easy to get caught up in the stress and busyness of the holidays, but here are my tips to stay productive during the holidays.

1. Stay Organized

If you have not spent time already GETTING organized, I highly recommend you do!  This will be your saving grace during your most busy times.

Phone Calendar: I love my Samsung Galaxy S6.  And I love that my email and email calendar sync with this phone.  I can add appointments via my phone, or from Outlook on my desktop.  The BEST part about this is that my phone REMINDS ME of my appointments!

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Agenda: In addition to my phone calendar, I also keep an agenda.  I am a very visual person, so writing my appointments triggers my memory.  I more so remember that I wrote something down, which reminds me to check.  Right now, I’m using this Kate Spade planner.  It’s not dated, which I personally love!  It comes with a section of sticky-notes and a task section. As well as flag sticky-notes!

2. Keep my Inbox Clean

I’ve written about this before.  Working in IT, I aimed to keep my inbox down to a maximum of 10 emails at a time.  I did this through intense content management.  Everything had a place where it belonged! Click here for the full blog.

3. Stay Healthy!

This is my favourite tip. Whenever I find myself getting really stressed, I tighten up my healthy eating habits.  I up my vegetable intake and always make sure I’m getting enough nutrients like vitamins and proteins.

Eating: My favourite healthy comfort meal is Pho.  It is so warm and rich!  I get the vegetarian option with fresh spring rolls – delicious!

Exercising: Just because you’re busy is no reason to skip exercising! I try to set aside an hour every day to get on the stationary bike, and use free weights.  On the bike I can edit blogs, and read through content, or enjoy a guilty-pleasure TV show (or both!).

4. Stay Positive

No matter what time of year or how busy we get, my best advice is to stay positive and remember, “This too shall pass”.  Life gets busy sometimes, so we need to embrace the down-time and little moments with friends and family.  Family time is my favourite thing about the holidays!  And the food is a close second…

No matter how busy we get in our day to day lives, and especially now with the holidays approaching, it’s important to remember that we are in control.  We can take a few minutes here and there to make our lives easier overall.  With a little planning, we can all stay productive during the holidays.

What are your tips for surviving the holidays as an entrepreneur or small business owner?  I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

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Until next time,

Deanna