If you are like most of us, you may feel pressed to wrap up loose ends this time of year. And indeed, this is necessary.
Beyond moving through the next few weeks in “check-list” fashion, however, the end of the year is a crucial time for reflection and preparation. It’s a period to not only celebrate accomplishments but also to confront challenges that have hindered you from enjoying more of the life you have worked to create.
If you would like to kick off 2024 in a way that enhances your quality of life and work, here are five areas that should prove helpful:
Identify, confront sources of stress
Why begin with this particular tip? Because this is a total game-changer! Eliminating those things that cause chronic stress enhances your physical health, mental well-being, relationships, the way you work – you name it, stress affects it. So, if you choose to work on just one area of focus from this article, I’d recommend it be this one. Here are two quick steps to get you going:
— Assess: Begin by identifying what has been causing you stress throughout the year. This could be work-related, like unending deadlines, or personal, like a particular relationship, or financial worries. Seek feedback, as well. Sometimes, others can provide insights into stress factors of which you might not be aware. Trusted colleagues or mentors can offer valuable perspectives.
— Develop a plan: Once you’ve identified these stressors, create a strategic action plan to address them. This might involve delegating tasks, setting clearer boundaries, or seeking professional support. Don’t feel as though you need to tackle all at once – this will not set you up for success. Instead, decide which of these is most important and start there first, then confront the next one, and so on.
Confront,overcome procrastination
Doing this will allow you to be more productive and efficient, improve your time management, enhance your confidence, and elevate your professional reputation (and a whole lot more!). Here are steps to help:
Understand the cause: Procrastination often has deeper roots, such as fear of failure or lack of motivation. Acknowledging these causes is the first step to overcoming them. If you can’t identify what lies behind your procrastination, talk it out with a friend or colleague so that you can better process it. Once you see what fuels this for you, it’s easier to move forward. For example, if you are procrastinating on completing a book because, underneath, you really fear what might happen if the book is successful, you can address the root cause of fear of success. This will help you break through the procrastination of writing it.
Set realistic goals: Break down large, overwhelming tasks into smaller, manageable ones. Setting achievable goals can reduce the urge to procrastinate because the initiative, task, or project does not seem so daunting. If helpful, write this out. My clients find that if they do this, it breaks the overwhelm and gives them a sense of achievement as they work through the steps listed.
Create a schedule: Allocate specific times for tasks you’ve been putting off. Treat these time slots as non-negotiable appointments. Too often, people don’t make the time to work on specific items, and this is where the statement “I can’t get to it!” gets real. Make sure you have allotted the time and space to work on those things that need to get done.
Improve time management
I could outline the benefits, but I imagine that you already know what you could do with more time. Enough said. Here’s how you can tackle this strategically:
Audit your time: Keep track of how you spend your day for a week. This may seem tedious, but the results are revealing. Once you review your audit, identify time-wasting activities and areas where you can be more efficient. Make the hard decisions, here.
Prioritize tasks: Use tools like the Eisenhower Box to prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance (see the internet for this tool). Is what you are working on moving you toward where you want to be, or are you focusing your time on putting out proverbial fires and not getting to the important stuff?
Implement Time-Blocking: Schedule blocks of time for different activities, including breaks, to ensure a balanced approach to your workload. We already mentioned this in the section “confront procrastination,” above. Test, adjust, repeat.
Enhance work-life balance
We talk a lot about this, and what generally keeps us from creating more of this is that we don’t want to have the hard conversations with ourselves and others. Ready, at last, to tackle this?
Set boundaries: Clearly define what interferes with your work-life balance and decide, once and for all, what to do about it. Is it a question of when your workday begins and ends? Is it saying “yes” to everything for fear you will be missing out, or that others won’t value you? Identify what factors need to shift or change, and what conversations you need to have in order to negotiate this, or to simply say “no!”
Engage in what matters most to you: Make time for activities that rejuvenate you, whether it’s exercise, hobbies, or spending time with loved ones. When I help executives find more time in their lives, we also work on what they will do, instead. Otherwise, the tendency for us as human beings is to let life fill in that newly created space. Be sure you know what you want more of, as you work to eliminate what you want less of, in order to enjoy better work-life balance.
Reflect, plan for the future
At the end of each year, I conduct VIP intensives to help executives plan for their new year. Here is a version that you can do at home. Even more rewarding is to do this with family members, to celebrate together and work collaboratively on priorities.
Reflect on your achievements and lessons: For what do you celebrate yourself as you review the year? What lessons did you learn? Acknowledge your successes and the lessons learned from setbacks, so that you can set your goals and intentions for the new year.
Set your goals and intentions for the New Year: Define what you want to achieve in the upcoming year, both professionally and personally. How can you incorporate lessons learned so that you can meet 2024 as a bigger and better version of you?
Create a roadmap: Develop a clear plan with milestones to help you stay on track towards achieving your goals. And get some expert help if you aren’t sure how to go about this.
Wrapping up the year is more than just ticking off tasks on a checklist. It’s about taking a comprehensive approach to what is most important to your well-being, and your personal and professional growth.
By addressing chronic stress, breaking the cycle of procrastination, managing your time effectively, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and setting clear goals for the future, you position yourself for a more productive and fulfilling year ahead. Remember, the end of the year is not just an end; it’s the beginning of what’s next.
Embrace this opportunity to reset, refocus, and recharge.
Patti Cotton serves as a thought partner to CEOs and their teams to help manage complexity and change. Reach her via email at [email protected].
