Step-By-Step Tactics for How to Thrive This Holiday Season

The sprint from Halloween to New Year's Day can be a blur, particularly without planning how you really want to enjoy each of the many holidays throughout this season... Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, Advent, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and more. Now that we are only 50 days away from Christmas, it's the perfect time to be proactive. Here are a few simple steps to get started. ⠀ Step 1: Detail your vision. How would each perfect holiday look, smell, taste, feel and sound? With whom would you be spending time? What would you be doing? Consider every aspect. ⠀ Step 2: Choose your priorities. Every what that has a when is more likely to get accomplished so schedule on your calendar what earns your time: holiday traditions, kids' performances, local events, gift-giving, new opportunities to celebrate. ⠀ Step 3: Integrate your holiday priorities amidst your existing commitments for work, home, community as well as self-care, including what you need to keep your mind, body and spirit fueled. Work-life integration proves so much more productive than the dream of work-life balance. Which of your non-holiday commitments can you delegate, delete or delay? Should you use some PTO from work to address holiday needs so they cause fewer distractions? ⠀ Step 4: Create a budget. Include everything for gifts, decorations, entertainment, food, beverage and travel, taking into account from where your resources will come to cover these additional expenses. Have you culled finances into a special account for holiday needs? Should you be aware of the limit for what credit card you'll use? ⠀ Step 5: Secure your travel details. What are your desired travel dates, and will you be going by plane, train or automobile? Should you get your vehicle serviced? How will you book hotel or other accommodations? Can tech make your trip better? ⠀ Step 6: Outsource what you can. Apps can enable automating certain functionality or you can delegate via sites like Fancy Hands, Task Rabbit and Thumbtack. Better yet, consider a local concierge service to help, such as Errand Girl, Consider It Done! or Metro's Other Woman. They do offer affordable options. ⠀ What steps can you take now to worry less, avoid hectivity and savor every moment? A little work now will make the holidays less overwhelming and empower you to thrive while enjoying it all.

Use the Thanksgiving Holiday to Boost Productivity

Taking time off to rest, rejuvenate and replenish our reserves can be one of the most productive things to do. Not taking breaks can increase risk for depression, heart disease or premature death, but integrating downtime has been found to boost strategic and creative thinking, making professionals more effective. Still, the thought of carving such time out of an already busy schedule can give folks heart palpitations, and the idea of stepping away from work to celebrate the holidays can be quite overwhelming. Contrary to what it might seem, there are steps you can take today to make celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday more enjoyable and, thereby, more productive.

- Focus on your "must do" tasks for this week. Once you are clear on your priorities, you can dedicate your limited time towards those 3 - 5 most important or urgent activities that absolutely must be completed before taking vacation. Rather than dwelling on what "should" be done, focus on what truly drives you towards achieving your goals. For anything else on your running to-do list, identify where each stands, determine next steps for each and schedule when those next steps will get done upon your return. If you feel compelled to attack every item on your to-do list, ask yourself what might be the worst possible outcome for not getting each item completed; then, determine if that possible outcome is really possible or simply your fear taking over your logic.

- Communicate your intentions clearly. Let clients know which of the tasks being done for them you anticipate completing before the Thanksgiving holiday, and share with your clients related updates on anything that will wait until after the holiday to be addressed. Alert members of your team as to when you will be accessible, if / when you'll be checking emails or voice mails while away and what items of note impact what work they are addressing. Who will you offer clients as a point of contact for any days your office will be open while you're away? What information would be most helpful to include in your out-of-office email reply, like who to contact in which scenarios?

- Schedule time to regroup upon your return. Yes, things will happen while you are away from work; folks might call or email, and you'll need time scheduled for addressing those loose ends. Since there is no "someday" on your calendar and time to catch-up doesn't magically appear, it is imperative to book an appointment with yourself for the day you return. If you can't block out the entire day, at least give yourself that morning to process new emails, return voice mail messages, communicate with your team and generally reassemble your working systems.

Take time now to prepare yourself for really enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday, fully take hold of the time for rejuvenating and use this opportunity to boost your productivity. Meanwhile, THANK YOU for being part of my world, investing your time to read what is written on this blog and providing feedback for how I can better share content that will empower your greater productivity. I am thankful for you and wish you a safe, happy Thanksgiving!

Counting My Blessings This Thanksgiving Holiday

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest that is now recognized as the first Thanksgiving celebration of Americans. The event was proclaimed by Governor William Bradford in honor of the harvest reaped in the colony following a brutal winter. In 1789, President George Washington proclaimed November 26, 1789 as the first nationwide day of Thanksgiving, marking the event as a time of public prayer. Then, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a presidential proclamation setting aside the final Thursday in November as a day to be commemorated by all the states. On December 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress to change the official day of Thanksgiving from the last Thursday to the fourth Thursday in November.

For more than two centuries, this Thanksgiving day has been honored as a time to acknowledge and express gratitude for the many benefits we have experienced.

As Oprah Winfrey said, "Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough." Just as I do each year, I reflect on all the wonderful things in my own life: fantastically supportive friends, wonderful clients who flourish as we partner for their improved productivity, a solid roof over my head with a beautiful home to surround me and an amazingly warm fireplace amidst these chilly autumn nights, opportunities to see exciting sporting events by teams for which I'm a fanatic and much more.

This year, I am even more blessed... My business is growing solidly, including national speaking engagements, expanding my services offered and adding products. I completed a comprehensive and rigorous training program to be selected as an Evernote Business Certified Consultant, and I was carefully chosen by North Carolina State University's Technology Training Solutions unit as an instructor to provide continuing education for people on how to efficiently and effectively use technology in increasing productivity while sharpening business organization skills. Plus, the 2014 Greensboro LUNGe Forward Run, Walk and Rally for which I served as Event Chairperson raised over $135,000 to decrease deaths and provide support to those affected by lung cancer through research, awareness, education and access programs across North Carolina. What amazing blessings this year!

Whether you'll be joining a large group of loved ones or celebrating in solitude, no matter if you are on the East or West Coast, whether you are up North or down South, all across the United States of America, please take time to reflect on what blessings you have.

This Thanksgiving holiday, for what are you most thankful?