Prep for Your Holiday Work Schedule
While I’m sure no client expects you to be working at 2:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day, you might end up working at that time if you’re not careful. The portability of our jobs makes it hard to break away, even on the holidays. So, set your holiday work hours well in advance. Write it down if you have to, just make sure you stick to it.
I’ve blocked out my calendar for the days I’m not working. That way, when I look at my calendar to schedule deadlines, I know not to schedule anything during or shortly after those days. I’m going to stop working mid-day Wednesday (pre-Thanksgiving) and probably work a few hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings before I go back to “full-time” work on Monday.
Make a must-do listof things you absolutely have to get done before you stop working for a few days. Prioritize your list and indicate which things can wait until after the holidays. If you have a long list or some time-consuming tasks, get started on them earlier so you’re not rushing to get them done at the last minute.
Set your blogs to drip. Wordpress’s drip feature is the best thing that ever happened. I’m going ahead and writing my Thanksgiving day & day after posts this week and setting them to drip. It’s one less thing I’ll have to worry about Wednesday as I prepare to completely shut down my laptop for a few days.
Send assignments to your clients. If you happen to have deadlines that fall during your planned offtime, send that work in early. That way you won’t have to try to remember it after you’ve entered “off” mode. Some email clients will delay message sending to a preset time, but you might have to have your computer on for that to work. Make sure you understand how that function works deciding to use it.
Let your clients know you’ll be away. If you have clients who you correspond with on a regular basis, you might let them know how often you’ll be checking emails and IMs (if you’re going to be checking them at all). That way, they won’t think you’ve disappeared.
Set your out of office auto-responder. Don’t take for granted that everyone who contacts you will know there are holidays. Remember, we work in a global market and not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. You don’t want client prospects to go away thinking you’re not responding to emails. Make sure your OOO message says when you plan to return and when you plan to return email messages.
Enjoy your time off! When you work for yourself, time off is a rarity. You’ve managed to workout a few hours to yourself, so make sure you enjoy it!
Are you planning to take time off for the holidays? What things are you doing to get your business ready for the break?
