The timing of Thanksgiving was a week earlier than usual, and it feels like we have an “extra” week before the onslaught of the December holidays. Even if you haven’t thought about this, it’s not too late to take advantage of it.
Many of my clients are on some part of what I call the “scramble spectrum.” If your work reaches a crescendo at year end, then you’re definitely somewhere on this continuum. Let’s take a brief quiz:
+ Do you feel that you have so much to do that you fret about forgetting something important?
+ Are you (a little?) short tempered with your colleagues?
+ Are you experiencing more anxiety than usual?
This is an easy list to easily add to, but those three questions get to the heart of it. Instead, let’s spend more time on what to do and how to get out of it.
+ Create a brain dump of everything you think you need to do by the end of the year. Once you have the list, organize it so that you can realistically identify priorities. If you are truly inundated (as opposed to just thinking that you are), realize that everything might not get done. Accept this, and it will help you be realistic.
+ Stop fretting about what won’t be completed. Fretting takes a lot of negative energy, and you don’t have time to be stuck in that muck.
+ Manage the expectations of people who are expecting something from you. The stress will diminish when you do this. People may be disappointed or angry upon hearing that you might be late/less thorough/incomplete, but it will be much worse if you don’t give them a heads up.
+ Take time for gratitude, including gratitude for yourself. Thoughts of gratitude cannot coexist with negativity, so this will elevate you.
+ And, counterintuitively, take a little time to engage in the joys of the season. You may not be able to do everything you’d like, but even a short bout of partaking in holiday festivities may energize you.
Sound like a plan? Good – go get ‘em!
Header image by Monicore/Pexels.com.
