Getting Your Head in the Game After Christmas

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, or so the crooner’s carol would have us believe.  Getting your head in the game after the festive season can be difficult with office Christmas parties, punsch at markets, and the general winding down of office activities through the month of December.  We have some great tips, pulled from all over the internet, to help you readjust to office life after the festive season is over.

 

Tidy Up Before You Go 

According to LifeHack, a great way to get back into the swing of things at the office is to tidy up before you go.  Coming back to a messy desk can cause stress.  Creating a clean and well-ordered workspace will make catching up easier when you arrive back in the office.  Marie Kondo, the tidiness maven responsible for the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, says once you tidy up you “have the energy and motivation to create the life you want”.   It is just a simple thing which could save you so much time and effort when you return from all the festivities.

 

Make Lists

Some of us are compulsive list makers.  Some of us love the sight of a fully crossed off to-do list.  Making a list of all your unfinished projects and where you are at in each of them will help you pick up the threads when you sit back in your office chair.  People will have sent emails and called while you are at your Grandmother’s Silvester Party, going through your emails and phone messages and making a prioritized list when you return will help with some of the stress associated with getting back to the office according to LifeHack.

 

One Thing at a Time

Psychology Today reports that we are not as great at multi-tasking as we think.  According to their article, The Myth of Multitasking, we lose precious seconds every time we switch from task to task, even it is listening to music while answering emails.  According to their article you stop one task and move on to the next, even if it is only a ten second music clip and a single line email, we still need to stop and pick up again.  This can cause stress, minute amounts but stress all the same.  As LifeHack says “why stress yourself out if you can avoid it?”

 

Leave the Office

That’s right, we said it. And we said it for two reasons.  The first, is to get you out of the office on time and the second is to get you to take a walk during the day.  Work-life balance in the start-up ecosystem is hard enough to achieve but when you are coming back from vacation it can be harder.  Set yourself a time limit and make sure you leave at that time.  Making sure you have time to devote to family and yourself is essential to maintaining a healthy balance.

Have we spoken lately about the benefits of walking?  Trust us, they are myriad.  According to Reader’s Digest, it can boost your mood, improve your creativity, help you remove that Christmas weight, sleep better, and reduce stress.

Need more tips, check out our other guide on getting back in the office after the holidays.