Startup Founders: Maximising Productivity During the Festive Season
When December comes around, it’s easy for us to all take our foot off the peddle and start relaxing for the lead-up to Christmas. Although the holidays are a time for reflection and chilling out, you can really reap the rewards if you carry on working hard whilst others are nursing December hangovers.
61% of small business owners will continue to work over the Christmas period (24 December – 2 January)
Unfortunately for business owners and Founders, they can’t take that kind of break. We’ve got some great tips on how you can maximise your time during the lead up to Christmas, which will prove valuable for the start of the new year.
Rewarding the Final Push
As the festive season comes around, it’s easy for employees to wind down from the first day of December. However, it doesn’t mean that you should let them. Business owners should understand that pushing too hard will actually have a negative effect on employees, as they will start to resent you.
Don’t be a Grinch but at the same time, help them understand that Christmas is sometimes the busiest time of year for business. Work hard as a team, but bring some festive spirit into working days. Things such as Secret Santa is a great team bonding exercise, plus it helps share some time out of work mode for a small part of the day.
Rewarding your team during December for all the hard work throughout the year is something that will lift the spirit of your team. Employees love a reward at Christmas.
Even if it’s as simple as a box of chocolates or extra time off to thank them, it will go a long way.
Start Everyday Head-on
This all comes down to sticking to a good routine and being consistent with it. Go into every day with the same mindset of being productive and tackling the most important tasks first.
This should be done during every month, there’s no reason to slack in December. If you have the same routine of going into work early and getting tasks done, you’ll become very productive and it’ll be like clockwork.
If you were to stroll into the office in the morning and take on a few odd jobs before lunch, the important jobs will start to stack up. This will result in a lot of big tasks piling up and the stress levels will rise. Instead, commit to getting into work a little earlier than usual during the festive season.
Put Yourself First
It’s all well and good being work focused 24/7, but you can experience a burnout which will really set you back. Spending time out of work and taking a break to ease your mind can have a positive impact on your work. When your mind is feeling fresh and ready to go, you’ll be surprised how good you’ll feel as you crack on with working during the festive period.
During the month of December, take a week or a few days off to get your personal stuff done, like the stressful task of Christmas shopping. That’s one big headache out the way, that won’t interfere with your ability to work at full capacity. If you really can’t afford to miss work, pencil in a weekend where you can take some time off instead.
Taking care of your mental state should be number one priority, especially as a startup founder and business owner. Don’t end up multitasking with work and personal related tasks because it will really affect your work negatively.
Don’t Over Do It
As we mentioned previously, you want to avoid a burnout at work. There is such a thing as working too much, which will lead to an unhappy mental state. This will have a negative effect on home and work life.
When it’s time to go home, you should stick to it and call it a day. If you’re working on Christmas, make time around it to have a break. Afterall, Christmas is a time for relaxing and spending joyful moments with friends and family. There’s nothing in life more important than that, as well as keeping your mental state in a positive position.
This doesn’t only benefit you as a startup founder, but also your team. Your team looks to you for guidance, as a startup founder. If they see you working every day during Christmas without a break, they will feel like they need to do the same or they would be seen as selfish.
Take a break, refresh the mind and enjoy the festivities. But when it’s time to work, then everyone in the team goes full throttle.
Manage Business Cards, Not Christmas Cards
Maximising productivity isn’t just for christmas. One thing you can do as a startup founder is to manage and stay organised.
Put down the Christmas cards and pick up your collection of printed business cards, there’s now a better way of storing and managing them via Contapp. Download Contapp for free in the Google Play & Apple App Stores today.
