Avoid Christmas New Year frustrations.

Avoid the year-end and Christmas New Year blues.

Yes, there is an alternative to solving these year-end and Christmas blues. Take time to find some new strategies to avoid them. It may be difficult when others depend on you to complete their tasks, but it is possible to make a difference in enjoying this hectic time of year.

I don’t particularly appreciate going on holidays with millions of others at this time of year. The traffic congestion, flies and heat in Australia are not conducive to my relaxing way. I always find the ‘great shutdown’ as the best time of the year to catch up on all those personal and family tasks I have been putting off.

It’s not too early for you to concentrate on what you need to do, what you must do, and what you want to do.

Times are changing.

Avoid the problems and frustrations that will undermine your dreams. You can avoid them by understanding what impacts your business and life more and doing something about it.

The period leading up to the Christmas and January holiday period has changed over recent years.

• The December/January period is still one of the most frantic times of the year, with the holiday rush and Christmas. The frustration of trying to do business when people are in holiday mode intensifies.
• The great Australian shutdown has emerged. Initially, it occupied the week before Christmas until the end of the first week of the New Year. It seems to run from Melbourne Cup Day, the first Tuesday in November, to Australia Day in January.
• Many find they must keep working flat out because they have been poorly organised throughout the year. They have not made the progress or profit they wanted and needed. Keep in mind that it’s the business with the best-planned systems and processes that win and can relax.

Prioritise and take action well before the holiday period commences.

Start now to maximise your productivity and enjoy family activities over the coming holiday.

• When will you close the business, and how can customers receive emergency service? 
• Ensure you have sufficient inventory or critical parts to carry you over the holiday period.
• Visit your business plan and look to clarify your vision for the future to reduce unnecessary worry..
• Prioritise good opportunities you like being involved in to keep your spirits high.
• Reduce worrying while relaxing by looking for activities to complete before February. 
• Schedule important meetings you need to have now.
• Put yourself ahead of others who will be scrambling for customers and resources in the new year.
• If you cannot accomplish a critical task independently, seek help before the holidays.
• Establish which key suppliers in your value chain will be available with capacity during the holiday period.
• Start identifying backups. Be able to maintain your customer service, should it be required.
• Don’t be left scrambling if there’s a need to service customers or roster employees.
• Rework your budget. Ensure your finances are in order so you can stop worrying.
• Do what you have to do to look forward to starting the new year relaxed and in control.
• Schedule activities for a flying start when everyone returns to work.
• Are there subjects you could be learning about over the holidays?
• Try and avoid customer callouts over the holidays by initiating preventative maintenance programs.

Be different next year.

Are you dissatisfied with how things turned out last year? Are you uninspired or bored with your business? Or do you perhaps feel like you’re fighting a losing battle?

• Give yourself and your employees something to look forward to before they leave for their holidays.
• Perhaps you need to make some timely and tough decisions. Things won’t change until you do.
• Maybe you could start turning your existing business into a lifestyle business.
• Remember, insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different outcome.
• Look forward to a feeling of well-being over the holidays and into the new year.
• Do something different for an end-of-year celebration.

Quotable quotes.

“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together”. Garrison Keillor

“I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirits in jars and open a jar of it every month”. Harlan Miller