Want to end the year on a high? Wrap up loose ends with this career coach’s top tips
If the pressure to wrap up all your loose ends before the end of the year is causing you to feel run down, stressed and frankly, utterly exhausted, you’re not alone. For many of us, the need to appease our inner perfectionists by ticking off everything on our to-do lists before logging off for the holidays, can make switching off all the more difficult to achieve.
It’s impossible to finish everything (without compromising our health) before turning our Out of Offices on, but we can leave the year on a high by silencing our inner critics and completing some small but significant workplace actions. We asked Career Coach and Get The Gloss Expert Anna Percy-Davis for her top stress management and organisational tips for keeping career goals on track and preventing pre-Christmas burnout levels from boiling over.
1. Acknowledge your accomplishments
“Take a few moments to reflect on what has gone well and what you might like to do differently next year. Try not to get stuck into taking a negative view of your year. What have you achieved? Pat yourself on your back for this and, if there are things that did not go quite as well – don't wallow in this but work out how you can handle things differently in the New Year.”
2. Plan for the year ahead
“Start making a plan for next year. It is very easy for us all to race into January and to hit the ground running without making a bit of a plan. Much better to work out what your goals are and what it is you really want to achieve and then to start putting this plan into action as soon as we get back into the office in the New Year. If we don't do this, we can find ourselves at the end of January or even February wondering what we have achieved and where we are going.”
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3. Sign off in style
“Ensure you reach out to all the people you need to before you leave. It might just be to say ‘Happy Christmas’ or to thank them for what they have done for you or your business in the past year and, even better, is it worth setting up a meeting with them in the New Year so you come to your desk in the New Year with some key meetings already in your diary.”
4. Personalise your Out of Office
“Make sure everyone who needs to is aware of when you will not be around – again you can do this in an opportunistic way, if you are telling people you are going to be away you can also use this as an opportunity to wish them well, set up a meeting for the New Year or to thank them for all they have done for you this year.”
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5. End on a good note
“Above all, it is worth doing your best to end the year on a positive note – so work out how best to achieve this – is it clearing your desk, is it getting a task done that has been wearing you down, or perhaps clearing the air with someone you have been having some tensions with? Whatever it is, try to get it done.”
6. Schedule in a catch-up
“Clear your desk as much as you can, but it is worth considering blocking off a bit of ‘catch up’ time in your diary for when you get back to your office so you can be firing on all cylinders and clear-headed as soon as possible in the New Year.”
7. Pencil in some perspective
“But do remember that sometimes we can take the Christmas break too seriously – how long will you be away for really and how much is likely to take place while you are away?”
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8. Take a well-deserved break
“Finally, perhaps the most important thing about the Christmas break, along with ensuring that you end the year on a positive note, is to go away and to really give yourself a proper break – if you possibly can, leave the office behind, embrace the goodwill of the festive period and just have some fun!”
Follow us @getthegloss and Ayesha @Ayesha_Muttu .