As the year draws to a close and the festive season takes hold, staying motivated at work can be a challenge. It can often feel as though you’re being pulled in multiple directions – not only do you have work deadlines to meet but all of those holiday-related logistics, from meal prep to gift shopping, demand your time and attention too.
The key is to keep things balanced – learning how to remain motivated and productive at work while still indulging in that festive cheer will give you the best of both worlds.
How exactly do you go about keeping yourself motivated when all you want to do is wind up early each evening and partake in that night’s festivities? Read on as Circle Hub shares some top tips!
Set Some Seasonal Goals
Now that the year is almost over, people tend to start focusing on the upcoming year by making new year’s resolutions that they’ll diligently strive to keep…at least for a while! Making some work-related resolutions is worth doing but let’s not forget that you still have to get through the rest of the holiday season!
To keep yourself motivated to finish the year on a high note, set some seasonal goals too. Decide what you want to accomplish before the new year begins, breaking them down into actionable tasks. You can then assign deadlines to each of those, physically checking each one off as they’re completed. Not only will this help to keep you going but it will also ensure a fresh start come January!
Immerse Yourself in a Productive Environment
Often, motivation and productivity are contagious. Surround yourself by hard-working individuals who are being their most productive selves and there’s a good chance that some of that energy will rub off on you, leaving you feeling inspired to do the same.
How can you do this? A good coworking space makes this easy. At Circle Hub, our Hot Spots consist of common working areas where people from all backgrounds and industries can grab a desk and get to work. The overall vibe here is always inspiring, making it no surprise that 84% of people feel more motivated when they work from a coworking space.
Keep Your Workspace Tidy
“Tidy space, tidy mind” is a commonly cited phrase – one that applies to your workspace too. While some people assume that a chaotic and messy working environment can help to stimulate creativity (after all, Einstein was notorious for being untidy!), this isn’t actually the case for most people.
Instead, a clean and uncluttered workspace helps to improve mental health and stability. This will give you more clarity at work while also increasing the amount of time that you’re able to remain focused on a task.
At a coworking space, staying tidy is easy. You’ll have no choice but to leave your desk in the same uncluttered state as you found it in. If you’re naturally quite a messy person, this is a great way to start building healthier habits.
Take Regular Breaks
When your personal to-do list is packed with holiday-related tasks that are waiting to be completed, you may find that you end up forcing yourself to sit at your desk for several hours in a row. After all, the sooner you finish your work, the more time you’ll have for the festivities! Unfortunately, not only does this strategy affect motivation, but it will hinder your productivity too.
Instead, you would be much better off taking regular breaks throughout the day. Sure, this may mean less time sitting at your desk working. However, when you are working, you’ll feel more motivated. You’ll be able to get more work done in a shorter timeframe. Studies show that regular breaks also help to reduce stress, boost creativity, and improve physical health.
Stay Active
Did you know that physical activity can help to increase motivation and productivity? Multiple studies have found this to be true, with moderate-intensity activities tending to be most helpful. It goes without saying that staying active and fit will do wonders for your overall health as well, which will also leave you feeling more motivated in general.
With that said, finding the motivation to exercise, especially during the holidays, can be difficult. Try setting aside 20 minutes each morning for a quick workout. If you’re a Circle Hub member, our on-site gym is perfect for this! Consider the ‘fun factor’ of the activities that you choose to do too. If you find an exercise enjoyable, there’s a much greater chance that you’ll keep doing it consistently.
Avoid Distractions
Distractions spell bad news for motivation and productivity year-round. However, distractions tend to be in abundance during the holiday season. People often take a more laid-back approach to work and spend copious amounts of time discussing their festive plans.
Ideally, you want to keep yourself away from those distractions as much as possible. Again, this is why a coworking space can be beneficial – there’ll be a community manager on-site to keep the ambience calm and quiet. You’ll also have the option of booking yourself a private office if you happen to need some complete privacy.
If you work in a more traditional office setting, consider investing in some noise-blocking headphones. Not only will this minimize the distracting noises that you hear but they’re also a sign that you don’t want to be disturbed, which will hopefully prevent other people from interrupting your workflow.
Try Some New Time Management Techniques
A lack of motivation often leads to procrastination. Then, before you know it, hours have passed, the day is over, you’re one step closer to the holidays, and you still haven’t gotten any further with your work.
To counter this, try experimenting with some new time management techniques. Staying in control of your day will help to keep you motivated to get all of your tasks done. A few popular time management techniques to look into are:
- Time blocking
- Task batching
- The Pomodoro Technique
- The Eisenhower Matrix
- Day theming
Keep Learning
While your mind may be saturated with thoughts of all of the gifts that you’ll be giving to other people, there’s one important gift that you should be giving to yourself; knowledge. Learning is a great way to stimulate the mind and can do wonders for your overall motivation. Keep learning and you’ll find it much easier to keep motivated, even if what you’re learning isn’t at all related to your work.
What sort of things should you be learning? Think about what deeply interests you. Whether you want to speak a new language, be taught how to use a certain software,
Stop Multi-Tasking
It’s easy to fall into the habit of multi-tasking at any time of year but the holidays make this an even bigger problem. You’ll likely find your mind straying to more festive thoughts, causing you to pause your work to browse an online store for a gift or scroll through holiday photos on social media.
You may think that doing this for just a few minutes isn’t a big deal. However, each time you allow your mind to wander, it will then take you up to 23 minutes to fully re-focus on the task at hand. It’s simply not possible for the human brain to focus on more than one thing at a time. So, quit the multi-tasking and give each item on your to-do list your full attention!
Socialize With Your Peers
While distractions while you’re working can have a negative impact on motivation, this doesn’t mean that you should completely cut yourself off from your peers. Instead, spending some time socializing with them could provide the get-go that you need to make it through the holiday period.
So, while most of your downtime will likely be spent enjoying the holidays with your loved ones, set aside some time for your peers too. Make an effort to attend work-related holiday events too – these will really help to keep your mind on track.
Get Plenty of Sleep
With both your work and personal life demanding so much attention during the holidays, sleep deprivation can occur very easily. This can have severe consequences on how motivated you feel.
Research shows that a lack of sleep not only leaves you feeling tired the next day but also inhibits creativity and makes it much harder to stay focused on certain tasks. Other studies also point to how sleep deprivation directly decreases motivation while increasing how much effort you’ll need to put into a task to get it done.
Needless to say, if you want to keep yourself motivated throughout the holiday season, adequate sleep is essential. Aim for about seven hours a night, even if this means saying no to some of the holiday party invitations you receive!
Embrace the Festive Spirit
The holiday season is all about joy, cheer, and positive vibes. Sure, this can sometimes be a distraction but you can also harness this festive spirit to keep yourself feeling motivated.
How? Try embracing all that the season throws at you. Attend those festive work events, bringing plenty of positivity with you. Practice gratitude too – reflect back onto the year and take note of your successes and accomplishments. Chances are that there were plenty of them! Focusing on these when your motivation starts to dwindle is a great way to keep yourself feeling inspired and focused so that you’re able to end the year on a high note.
Summary
There’s no denying that it can sometimes be extremely difficult to stay motivated at work during the holidays. If you can relate, the tips above should definitely help! Try to implement as many as possible and you should soon find that the decline in your motivation does a quick turnaround, leaving you feeling inspired and determined to do your best work for the rest of the holiday period.
Click here to find out more about the coworking spaces offered by Circle Hub.