Tips for Maintaining Employee Focus Through the Holiday Season

With all the hustle and bustle of this festive season, sometimes it can be hard to maintain employee focus. It’s easy to become distracted and lose motivation with the decorations, parties, traveling, and family visits that are headed this way. But you don’t need to sacrifice productivity to enjoy the holiday season. Here are a few tips to keep the momentum going throughout the most wonderful time of the year.

1. Set Early Deadlines

Foster a healthy sense of urgency by setting early deadlines for projects and assignments. This way, not only does the work get done quickly and efficiently, it will also push employees to get the work done with plenty of time to enjoy the holiday festivities. This creates a win-win scenario: your business stays productive and your employees can get a jump start on a stress-free holiday break.

2. Limit Elaborate Decor to the Customer Areas

It’s good to have decorations to brighten the workplace and bring in customers. At the same time, it’s important not to go overboard with your holiday decor. Decorations should be tasteful, neat, and not distracting for employees. Focus on the Big Three: front door, tree, and a focal point. Encourage a festive feel without trapping employees into marathon decorating sessions.

3. Give Incentives

People are always trying to earn a little extra money around the holidays. This can be a productive way to help the business and your employees. Give some incentive to keep your employees focused and on task during the holiday seasons. Offer rewards like cash bonuses or additional vacation time for meeting early deadlines, heightened productivity, or putting in some extra hours.

4. Create a Prioritized List

Create a list of all the things that need to be done before celebrations can begin to increase motivation and show a visual reminder of incomplete tasks. This will set clear expectations and goals to be completed as well as help each thing get done in an organized fashion. A list also ensures nothing is forgotten and no one is stuck making up time on Christmas Eve.

5. Avoid Multitasking

With the amount of work to be done in such a short amount of time, it’s tempting to try to pile it all on at one time. But this can lead to easily avoided mistakes or low-quality work. Focus on one project at a time and take your time to make sure you get it right. It’s understandable to want to rush through, but this can lead to having to redo things later during the important moments.

6. Keep Business Separate

Don’t take work home with you. When you’re at work, work hard with determination and focus so that you can come home and focus on what’s really important. Don’t let yourself get lost and distracted in all of the holiday chaos. Be more effective by getting work done early so you can focus on the quality time and excitement of your Christmas or New Year’s Eve plans without worry!

It’s difficult to stay task-oriented when everything around us is filled with the cheerfulness and chaos of these upcoming celebrations. Try to remember that even after all the festivities are over, you want your company to still be focused and efficient, so keep priorities in order. Work hard and get the work done quickly and successfully – that’s when the party can really begin.