To keep busy business owners on track in the festive craziness, here are a few tips to balance festivity with focus as you bring in the New Year. 

1. Unplug from Technology 

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is to stop and take a break. Find time to unplug from technology, relax and be present with your humans. 

If you suffer from workaholic withdrawal turn off notifications and email settings. Pause apps that send you push notifications about work tasks, such as organisational tools, calendar and social media to avoid being tempted. Whether it’s for a few hours, a day or a week it’ll make a difference to your time off and productivity when you’re back at work. Authentic and unfiltered conversations are missed when you’re too busy staring down at your screen. 

A wise man once said that elite performance without deep recovery leads to depletion. Robin Sharma’s words remind us that people with drained batteries are highly unproductive. Blocking time out to regenerate isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity. 

If you’re committed to usefulness and creativity then you must rest. And what better time to do so than at the end of the year to start 2020 with a bang, feeling refreshed. 

2. Create Lasting Memories

Whether you have cultural norms at this time of year or not, creating lasting memories is important. 

I’m talking on a personal and professional level – with your favourite humans, family, friends and with your business. 

Have tiny humans? Good times, laughing and loving experiences are more memorable than toys. 

From a business perspective, focus on creating lasting (positive) memories with clients. Powerful experiences are the best way to forge memorable bonds. So, adopt storytelling methods to capture your audience’s attention and make your clients the hero of your story. 

Human brains are hardwired to be pulled into stories. In fact, digestible narratives light up your brain by increasing the neural activity. When you hear or read a story, empathy is created at a chemical level which strengthens the relationship with your audience and helps to build on those lasting memories. Good stories also bring people together and isn’t that what Christmas is about? 

Read my story here. 

3. Update Your Hours

Have a Google My Business listing? 

If you haven’t already, update your holiday hours to reflect changes over the Christmas season. Include seasonal times on your website, post them on your social media channels and send out an email blast to clients and suppliers to notify them. 

Tip: You can also use your GMB listing to let your audience know about holiday promotions or to show off seasonal decor and Christmas-related products with photos and videos. 

4. Embrace Conscious Shopping

One of my favourite words is substantive. It means one of two things:

1. Having substance involving matters of major or practical importance to all concerned. 
2. Belong to the substance of a thing; essential. 

Why do I love this word?

Because it acts as an important reminder in a world of materialistic things to be someone with substance. 

Similar to the concept of Mark Manson’s book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, which has a tonne of substance, it reminds us to focus on only what is true, immediate and important. Things of substance over superficial satisfaction. 

If you apply the word to the way you shop this Christmas it allows you to embrace conscious gift ideas. It doesn’t mean you can’t give your kids toys or buy something for friends and family. It simply means to shop differently. Instead of breaking the bank with lavish presents, buy a small but meaningful gift for the special humans in your life. Or buy a gift that keeps giving, like the adopt a koala idea in the midst of Australia’s devastating bushfires.

5. Show off Your Holiday Spirit 

Whether you’re a service-based business who closes down over the holidays or an eCommerce business who booms, find a way to show off your holiday spirit. 

Seize the festivity with Christmas or New Years-related posts, share season-only offers and start holiday-related conversations with your audience. Make your posts fun and festive whilst staying aligned with your business brand.

Have any tips you’d like to share? Feel free to add them into the comments below. 

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