How to Come Back from the Holidays Energized

A lot of businesses either close or slow down during the last week of the year. It's time spent with the family, reflecting on successes and/or shortcomings and laying plans and goals for the coming year. Matt Plumber, writing an HBR Blog, says that to make the most of your time off during the last week of the year, it is important to understand your tendencies. He found three dominate types.

 

The couch potato does nothing after sending the last email before the holidays. Couch potatoes may binge watch TV shows or generally sit around all day without accomplishing much of anything. If this tendency describes you or any members of your team, it may be difficult to come back to the showroom refreshed. While it might be helpful to disengage and do nothing, there are likely many other needs that you might have ignored such as meaningful social interaction, exercising, reading and active contemplation that you don't get by binge watching Netflix.

 

The second dominant tendency is the holiday humbug - the person who works straight through the holidays. Even if they don't come to the showroom, these humbugers work on proposals, follow up with manufacturers and are engaged in day-to-day operations. The reason why so many people are drawn to the land of "humbugs" is that they view the time between Christmas and New Years as a time to catch up. They can work uninterrupted. However, taking time off and disengaging with work helps prevent burnout. Mr. Plumber points out that using this time to work may reduce short-term stress but with long-term detriment. His main point is how many times during the year can you take a week off and return to the showroom with no new assignments to catch up on?

 

The third major type is the workaholidayic. These are people who instead of working all the time, celebrate all of the time. They travel to visit family members and go to one office party after the other, leaving little time to relax or contemplate. By the time they return to work January 2, they need a vacation.

 

Many DPHA members have type A personalities. They are driven. They are goal-oriented. For those members, Plumber advises setting goals for the holiday season. How much sleep do you want to catch up on? How often and how long do you want to exercise? What other tasks do you want to accomplish that are not work related?

 

Take time to clear your mental inbox. This will help you calmly and effectively address new experiences in the coming year. Find a quiet place to jot down thoughts or have deep conversations with friends and family.

 

Set goals for the coming year and chart out action plans and milestones for achieving them. If you plan things up front, unlike making resolutions that are only kept 8% of the time, you are less likely to create unrealistic goals. If you want to lose 10 pounds, set the goal that you will lose three pounds in January, 3 pounds in February and 4 pounds in March.

 

Create holiday traditions to help set and meet goals. Take a family trip. Spend a day together at a museum. Developing meaningful, productive and restful traditions helps ensure a meaningful and restful holiday season. Creating and fulfilling holiday traditions also helps ensure that you are spending time doing the things you want to do instead of being pulled into doing things that others may want you to do but that you have no interest in doing.