It’s that time of the year. Famously referred to as the “most magical”, yet best described as an additional project to manage. Office parties, Secret Santa, client’s gift-giving, Christmas networking and office decorating are sharing ‘top priority status’ with your company’s biggest clients and campaigns. Balance that with the increased demand of family life, an anxious economy and getting hit with the annual dose of winter flu, and we have ourselves one exhausted Dynamic Woman. 

It’s completely understandable that many of us will be clawing our way to the finish line – part Christmas bauble, part Yule Log. There’s no hiding from the reality of what those last few working weeks of the year can bring. Nor will I throw any shade at those parties, secret Santa gift hunting or the little Christmas tree that will be sitting at my desk when you’re reading this. 

‘Work Christmas’ is a hugely positive tradition; it’s the ‘Twixmas Stress’ that we all need to avoid.

What is Twixmas Stress?

Twixmas Stress refers to that time between Christmas and New Year when all the stuff you didn’t get done at work comes back to haunt you. And that haunting accumulates into the huge staff turnover in January. 

The “I should have done” stick evolves into a hot rod of self-doubt, sleepless nights and fear for the year ahead; made worse by the input of loving family and friends who hate to see you like that. We see the highest volume of “help, I think I hate my job” posts during Twixmas, and almost all of them are held up by the “should have done” stick. 

When you strip away the anxieties of those reaching out for advice, regardless of industry or level of experience, it comes down to one common theme: they didn’t prepare to rest.

You’ll know from previous columns that I’m an advocate for rest and the seven different types: physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social and spiritual (more on that in issue 50.) Not just lying on the sofa with picky bits and a Hallmark film, but an authentic switch-off in every sense of the word.

I have three tips to help you get there: Inbox Zero, Project Planning and Frog Eating.

Inbox Zero

There’s truly no better feeling than going into the weekend on Inbox Zero. “You have no new mail!” Ah, what a wonderful statement. Of course, there are some emails waiting in my “next week” folder, but I’ve made the decision to do that, rather than have my emails do it for me. 

As Merlin Mann, originator of the Inbox Zero technique, shares so eloquently: it’s not about having the perfect inbox, it’s about making email work for you. 

Personally, I follow the Graham Allcott and Think Productive method of Inbox Zero management, but however you get there, let it be by Christmas.

Project Planning

If you’re going to take any action away from this article (and I really hope you do), it’s this: take out your diary and block out two hours for Project Planning. Make sure it’s the soonest time possible. The weeks will soon fly by. 

Follow these five steps:

1. Switch off your wifi, turn off your phone, and download all of the outstanding tasks of your projects from your brain onto paper

2. Decide on the “hard stop” for each of your projects. What needs to be done by Christmas? 

3. Work backwards from that hard stop to highlight what needs to be done

4. Review whether or not you’re being realistic. How long will this take? Is it really what needs to be done? Is it possible to do?

5. Edit accordingly. Do it.

Frog Eating

Eat that frog. Brian Tracy’s famously gross expression, referring to doing the biggest, hardest, and most important thing first. It’s a great lesson in productivity management that’s easy to ignore when you’re tired and overwhelmed. But that frog will ribbit its way into your precious time off and hop all around your brain if you don’t. 

If you’d followed steps one and two, your frog is probably long gone. But if they’re leaping around your mind as you read this, write them down and get ready to cross them out with a big glittery pen.

There are only two types of frogs that are welcome in your rest time: one’s a Freddo, and the other is on a notebook gifted to you in your work’s secret Santa.

citygirlnetwork.com