The end of the year is a particularly busy time, especially for working women and moms. Not only are most of the holiday-related tasks, including gift-buying and giving, as well as hosting and prepping, on women’s to-do lists, but work responsibilities also tend to pile up then too. With all the distractions and other personal and family obligations over the holidays, staying on track and on task at work can be quite the challenge. As working moms, it becomes a matter of efficient strategizing to boost your career (without losing your sanity).
In my experience, attempting to do it all over the holidays (and frankly at any other time) is close to impossible. Rather, it forces so many of us to over-extend ourselves, push beyond our limits, and threaten our own mental and physical health, not to mention our sense of self and joy during what is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year.
This is where a solid strategy comes into play, one that does not require piling on more than what is necessary, but rather conducting an honest assessment of where we stand and fill in the gaps where absolutely needed:
- Check in with your beginning of the year goals
There’s a famous African proverb that says: “In order to know where you’re going, you must know where you’re coming from.” This applies to all areas of life, but I’ve found it most impactful in the workplace. To close out a year successfully and set out the best direction for the future, it’s important to go back to what was set in motion at the beginning of the year.
What were your beginning-of-year goals? What priorities did you set to achieve when the year started? How did you do with these? This will not only allow you to celebrate what you have been able to achieve and get some much-needed encouragement and motivation. It will also allow you to identify what is missing and may need to get done before the end of the year.
- Prioritize impactful pending tasks
As you identify and prioritize remaining tasks that need to be addressed by the end of the year, or have to put out some last-minute holiday fires, take some time to prioritize. Again, not everything needs to be done by December 31! Not everything is a priority.
However, there are some tasks that have more impact on your career and track record, as well as on the short-term welfare of your team, department and/or organization. These are the tasks that should be on your priority list. Anything else that can be postponed, delegated, or even cancelled should go.
- Communicate your needs and plans!
As busy as the end of the year may be, it’s also a time when communication with your team and colleagues is of utmost importance. As you set your priorities and to-do’s to attend to, including your personal priorities, it’s crucial to communicate these to those who are also impacted by your work.
Getting on the same page with those you work with will help you avoid many a misunderstanding, and even get you the support, help and encouragement you need to bring your work to a successful close this year.
- Say NO
If there is any time when using the power of NO comes in handy, it’s during high-stress, high-expectation times like the holidays. As a working woman and mom, so much is expected of you over this time, from family, friends and colleagues alike. This is the time to know and recognize your own limits, not in an admission of weakness (all to the contrary), but rather in an honest and quite powerful way to preserve yourself and others.
Keeping the lines of communication open and delineating the impact of the tasks on yours and your team’s to-do list, and most importantly being honest and transparent, will save you much trouble and headache. Most importantly, it will allow you to free up time to focus on what truly matters to you.
- Recap and learn
One of the most important parts of successfully closing the year at work is being able to learn from the time that has passed. In a haste to get it all done, so many of us miss out on the opportunity to truly learn and grow just by analyzing the patterns of the past year and drawing invaluable insights from these.
What worked well this year? What didn’t work so well? What are impactful areas of growth? What should be kept, and what should be dropped, delegated, or postponed? What can be tweaked or totally changed? These are just some questions to ponder and learn from as we close a professional year.
- Set your goals for next year
Last but not least, out of all that’s been done, learnt and worked on during the year, along with our desires and purpose, our future goals should emerge. While they may not be totally clear as we close the year, they should feed off our experience, victories and lessons learning to at least start forming the beginning outline of what we want the future to look like for us.
How do you successfully manage the close the year at work as a working woman and mom?
The Corporate Sister.
