For the self-employed who seldom take a day off, work into the wee hours in a home office, and find it hard to dis-engage their brain from work during the holidays, here are a few tips to keeping the peace with those who may want a few moments of your time during the holiday season.
- Establish a holiday work schedule and share it with co-workers, family and friends as a way of setting time utilitization boundaries for them and yourself.
- Note special holiday events and make room for them in your work schedule, even if they come up at the last minute. Priority always goes to friends and family during the holidays, even though the opposite may be true during the remainder of the year.
- Turn the computer off when not using it. This not only saves energy, but it reduces the temptation to "hop online" for "just a minute" to do some type of work when you should be focusing on friends and family.
- Turn the cell phone off during holiday events. If you need to keep it on to receive family calls, hit the "send to voice mail" button if work calls come in outside of your established holiday work schedule. If you're any good at what you do, that business contact will patiently wait for your call back. If you're not any good and may lose a client because you didn't take their call, maybe a New Year's resolution could be to work on getting better at what you do or to start a new career by attending barber college, Truckmasters driver training school, or preparing for some other line of work.
- Check voicemail, email, faxes and other work communications at regular intervals that do not interfere with holiday activities. It doesn't need your moment-to-moment attention like it does during the normal work week. It can wait.
- Find ways to relax. Many self-employed people set a pace for daily work activities that would kill most normal people. "Coming down" off that pace during the holidays can cause emotional and physical withdrawals. In it's place, substitute jogging, family sporting activities, and lots of extra sexual activities during the holidays.
- Be patient with others. As previously mentioned, we're used to working at a frantic pace with others who work at a similar pace. Friends and family may be normal, so let's cut them some slack if they can't keep up with us. Let's slow down to meet their pace and keep harmony in the family.
- Be flexible. Holiday activites aren't always run on an iron schedule with a specific event sequence scenario designed for optimum performance. Roll with the punches.
- Remember to say "thank you." Ok, it seems that everyone is jerking you and your time utilitization plan around to beat the band, but they mean well. Ignore the obvious putz that passes your way and remember that everyone else is just trying to make you happy in their own peculiar way. Take it as intended and say "thank you."
Happiness during the holidays isn't just about us, it's about the Big Picture. Creating good karma. So relax, reconnect with friends and family, and enjoy the holidays.
John Souerbry is a self-employed California real estate broker who finds it hard to relax any time of the year. But he's working on it.
Comments (4)Subscribe to CommentsComment