By J. Mason
Online Career Tips Staff
If you’re lucky enough to be employed during the holiday season you may be in my shoes today…sitting at your desk doing work and wishing you had taken that extra day off. Even though that extra day of laziness can be enticing being in the office may do you some good.
Think about it, even with half the staff still enjoying eggnog and staying warm in their homes, you have more breathing room to work on things you’ve had to put off due to mounting task lists. Save the assignments you have to work on with people that are out of the office until next week. There’s no sense in stressing over something when you know it won’t get done this week.
Instead, look at the P3 (bottom tier priority) tasks you’ve been consistently postponing. Make a temporary to-do list for this quiet week. These seemingly minuscule tasks could turn into bigger projects down the road if given the opportunity. Give yourself some time to be creative. It’s probably been a while since you’ve mapped out ideas you’ve been holding back, now is the time to put them on paper or fully research them and bring them to fruition.
Things to do while work is slow:
- Schedule meetings with people in the office to meet about upcoming projects (get the initial meeting aside)
- Kick start your own campaign by gathering your collateral materials before everyone returns
- Clean out your inbox; IT will thank you for this
- Catch up on your correspondence
- Research trends and news in your industry by highlighting them on the web
- Schedule meetings for the following couple of weeks with those coming back next week
- Fact check and proof any materials that may be outdated in your system or networks
Don’t wait until the New Year to boost your productivity, take advantage of the calm that’s in the office when everyone is on vacation. Make a toast to the big bang you added at the end of 2010.
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