It’s counter-intuitive: This time of year we should be taking time to enjoy life, but for many entrepreneurs, it’s the busiest season of the year. And that’s not just for those who work in retail. We’re busy with holiday party obligations, buying client gifts, volunteering, sending cards…the list goes on and on.
I’m in favor of this being the best time of year, and taking a moment to reflect on the past 12 months. To that end, below are my tips for managing the madness.
How to Keep Your Sanity During the Holidays
1. Say No
Sure, you feel the need to give your time right now, but you don’t have to.
We have this sense of guilt when we say no, but it’s actually freeing. We assume the world will fall apart if we don’t make cookies for our kid’s class, take on a new project and attend every holiday event.
But you know what? The world keeps on turning.
2. Start Early
If you’re just now thinking about how to market during the holidays, you’re adding undue stress to your workload. Be like 31% of businesses, who start their holiday marketing strategy 2-3 months in advance.
You can bet they’re less stressed in executing their plans since everything was laid out months ago.
3. Make Client Gift Shopping Simple
It’s wonderful if you have time to individually curate gifts for each of your clients. But if you don’t have that kind of time, buy in bulk.
There are hundreds of sites that sell gift baskets and boxes of goodies that let you bulk buy and ship directly to your clients. You can customize by choosing different gifts from the same site. But you’ll drastically cut down on your shopping time if you can make a single purchase and send gifts to everyone on your list
4. Focus on What Really Needs to Get Done
I keep procrastinating on an ebook I want to write before the end of the year. I find a million other things I “should” do instead. But come January, I’ll be disappointed that I procrastinated on this business-building tool.
Look at your to-do list and eliminate everything that’s not a necessity.
5. Clean and Organize
I like to start a new year with an organized office. You should too. Carve out an hour each week to deal with that teetering pile of papers on your desk, as well as to organize your computer files.
In the new year, you’ll be more streamlined and able to find what you need quickly.
6. Be Selective About Events
Here you can exercise your new ability to say no. Holiday parties can be fun, but they can also be stressful, especially when they take you away from the office or home.
Decide which events you really need to be present at, as well as which you really don’t want to attend – and RSVP accordingly.
7. Schedule Your Marketing
If you’re the person at your company that writes the blog posts and social media updates, be smart about your time.
When you have an hour or more to dedicate to marketing, maximize your time by writing several posts and scheduling them for the remainder of the year. Use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule your social media updates.
It’s easy enough to set up tweets and updates to your content, then check in once a day and respond directly to any comments sent to your account from other users.
8. Stop and Breathe
Like I said, now is the ideal time to reflect on the past year. Instead of constantly going-going-going – slow down and enjoy the moment.
Don’t let the holidays stress you out. Instead, use this time to appreciate everything you’ve accomplished as a small business owner.
I’ll raise my glass of hot cocoa to that!
Happy Santa Photo via Shutterstock
Aira Bongco
I know what you mean by busy. I also work in the gift giving industry and Christmas is not a season of rest for us. In fact, it is one of our busiest seasons. But then again, we don’t allocate time to Christmas events and stuff so that we can focus more on what matters – satisfying our clients.
Aira–
Where do you work? When you say “gift giving industry,” you’ve piqued my curiosity!
Aira Bongco
I work in an online gift store. We get more orders in seasons like Christmas and Valentines day. That’s why we really cannot rest during these seasons as this is a season where most of our money comes from.
And when you’ve decided to stop working, make sure you’re totally away from it. Put the phone on silent and set it somewhere you won’t see the notification light. Then go enjoy the time off.
Agreed. If you constantly feel guilty, you’re not really staying sane.
Aira Bongco
Haha I need to remind myself constantly of that. You see, I’m a workaholic. I just cannot survive without that ‘kick’ from work. I am the type that people have to remind to stop working just because it is Christmas or it’s my birthday.
I’ve often found it difficult to say no to people. Guilty too. Especially with family and friends. But if I’ve learnt anything this year, it’s this: saying no to others is saying yes to myself :-). I shouldn’t exclude myself from the equation of time giving. I’m worth my own time.
I agree to the fact that holiday or festive season is the best time of the year to do all sort of work but without getting insane with it. Patience & proper planning always pays off even with the toughest time, why don’t we practice it to get a better result.