For many of us, the end of year can produce more stress at work than all other months combined. With usually everybody wanting everything “done by Christmas”, there are more deadlines and a huge rush to complete end of year reports and make plans for the coming year.
On top of this, our non-work hours are filled with Christmas parties, social commitments and Christmas shopping to name a few, and therefore it is especially important to take steps to avoid burn-out around this time of year.
With all this in mind, here’s some tips on managing your end of year stress:
- Prioritise: Be kind to yourself and determine what can wait until the new year. It is near impossible to finish all tasks by Christmas, whilst enjoying time with your family and friends, therefore prioritise what needs to be done and what can be postponed.
- Identify stress/pressure points: What overwhelms you at work? Feeling out of control and under pressure is a form of emotional overloading and can trigger stress. Once you understand what triggers your stress, you can establish strategies to avoid and overcome these triggers.
- Plan daily activities or hobbies to look forward to: Whether it’s a walk, coffee break or cook your favourite meal, we all need small things in life to look forward to so make time for these on your busy schedule.
- Try not to take things personally: Remember that everybody is busy and accepting that your work colleagues or clients are extra stressed this time of the year, try your best not to jump into defensive mode if somebody lashes out.
- Deep breathe: Incorporate regular deep breathing into your daily routine – we love the app ‘Insight Timer’, a free meditation app with sessions starting from 1 minute long.
- Be organised: When things get overwhelming, make a list of all the tasks you need to complete, prioritise and complete them, one at a time.