With Christmas-time and New Year’s Eve being just around the corner, most of us have a bit more excess time than usual. But what can you do with it, except eating well? A guide on how to use your Christmas Holidays effectively.
It’s that time of the year again. Christmas holidays are approaching at lightning speed and for most people, this means taking a minor break from their usual daily routine. We meet family, friends and ideally leave some time for ourselves too – at least that’s the best-case scenario. The reality is that Christmas holidays can easily end up in a cookie-packed series of vacation-days with lots of slacking off and little effective rest.
Taking a step back from an (intense) work-schedule can be extremely beneficial and bring back lost traces of unexpected creativity.
Nonetheless, there’s no better time to work on yourself than Christmas-time – or if you work during the main holidays, any of your other off-days. Taking a step back from an (intense) work-schedule can be extremely beneficial and bring back lost traces of unexpected creativity. Combining these benefits with recreational activities and community can build yourself a top-notch starting point for crushing 2020.
But let’s start from the beginning. How can you use your holidays in the best way possible – even if they’re just a few days?
🔌 1. Unplug from work
Seriously. Work can be great and fulfilling – but it’s not everything in life. And Christmas-time is perfect for getting your mind off work-life. Yes, this also means not checking your work email and messages. There shouldn’t be a reason to check your work-messages all-day-everyday anyway. In case of an emergency, the message will reach you regardless.
The positive aspects of unplugging outweigh the negative ones by far. Getting away from work – even it’s just for a few days – will cover you in a whole new wave of energy and creativity, which in return can boost your business as a whole once you're back at it. So take a few days off for the sake of yourself and your business. There's nothing to lose.
💁🏾♀️ 2. Focus on relationships
Relationships are everything. I mean, where would we be without them? Even Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs prioritizes love and belonging in the form of well-functioning relationships over self-esteem and self-actualization. In our stressful day-to-day life, we often forget that. Not only that, but it’s also hard to perform at your best at work when there’s something emotionally stressful going on in your life.
Therefore, take those Christmas-holidays and devote your time to the most important relationships in your life. Family, partners, friends and anyone else important to you. Use the excess time to finally make those procrastinated long-distance calls, catch up on your cousin’s life or just have a nice dinner with your partner. Eventually, that’s what Christmas-time is about: Connection. So, use the time accordingly.
🕰 3. Use the AM-hours
Even though work (and/or university) might be a secondary thing during your holidays, we get that time is restricted by other obligations. Probably, catching up with family and friends will take up a majority of your days. But that’s no reason to let your holidays pass by leaving no time for yourself. Social events mostly start at lunchtime if they’re scheduled early. So there’s a whole bunch of AM-hours left on most days. You can use this time effectively. You don’t have to sleep in every day just because it’s Christmas time.
The AM-hours provide precious space for everything you’ve always wanted to do but never had time for: Learning that new skill, freshening up your language-skills, de-cluttering your apartment or wardrobe or simply going for a long run. If there was a time-frame literally made for all of those activities, it would probably be the early hours of holidays. Catching the early bird during holidays isn’t that hard – and “early” is subjective anyway.
📸 4. Do something memorable
A big part of every vacation is the anticipation beforehand and remembering it afterwards. Everyone has some specific memories about holidays which one will keep forever. Those are the memories you want to create on every occasion possible – also during your Christmas holidays.
Plan a special trip with friends or family. Or do random stuff. The possibilities are endless. And when would you have the time (and the people around) for it, if not during holiday-season?
📓 5. Reflect and plan ahead
Often, we get quite lost in our daily routines and lose sight of the big goal for a bit – especially during the stressful months before Christmas-season. But in order to work properly, humans need goals – something to chase. If you're able to unplug from work for a few days during Christmas-season, it's the perfect time for reflecting on recent happenings and reviewing on your goals.
No matter if you sketch out specific life-goals in a notebook or you just lie around for a hours and think – the results boost your creativity, motivation and eventually take you onto the right path of life. Reflection also helps you master future problems better. So there’s every reason to reflect.
🎄 6. Enjoy it!
Holidays can be a game-changer in our routinized lives if used for the right things. We just shouldn't routinize them too much either. After all, holidays exist to give us a break from the often stressful routines.
And before you jump right back into your usual regiment after the holidays are over, one thing: Figure out a little aspect during your break that you would like to include more into your daily life. Maybe you’d like to be more reflected, work on that skill for a few minutes each day or focus on your relationships a bit more. Often, holidays tell us what we actually value in life.
Are you still looking for an impactful Christmas present? How about gifting your beloved friend, wife or colleague a membership at the female factor. Sparking growth is one of the most valuable presents one can give. We offer exclusive master-classes, access to world-class mentors and an incredible community of female-change-makers.