It is the holiday season!
While we know that this is the most wonderful time of the year, do you feel like your personal schedules and work-life are competing for attention? If so, join the club. Many medical professionals are facing chaotic holiday schedules this year. The weeks from October to January make up some of the happiest times of the year, but they can also be some of the most discouraging. As a busy medical office manager, balancing work and life during the holidays can be the most challenging part of the whole season.
With the holiday season comes the challenging task of balancing work and life. Many medical office professionals struggle with balancing their personal and work lives, which leads to contending priorities and extra stress. If you are facing holiday overload, follow these few steps to help you achieve that balance and a little peace this season.
Prioritize your activities.
As we all know, the holiday season tends to get overwhelmingly busy. We want to enjoy the recitals, cookie making, parties, and gift exchanges, but we still must keep up with our regular responsibilities.
Some days it can feel like there are not enough hours in the day to fit everything into our schedules. To pull off a healthy work-life balance during the holidays, you must make prioritizing – well – a priority.
Begin by creating a simple list of your work and personal activities. Work projects need to be at the top of your list. Once you have listed all the “must-do” assignments, start focusing on your personal life. This is where the balance between festivities, friends, family, and other holiday-related responsibilities begins. Next, you will need to list those events and activities in order of importance to you.
Create a schedule – and stick to it.
Once you have determined your priorities and how much time you have available, start scheduling your holiday hours. This is key to juggling work and life during the holidays. Use a day planner, a good old-fashioned calendar, an app on your smartphone, alongside an appointment reminder tool. Start by doing the following:
- Insert your working hours and off-hours.
- If you have critical work projects due, list those next. These are a part of your “must-do” list; highlight them, they stand out.
- Go through your list of personal priorities and start scheduling the items that have set fixed dates.
- Save those extra things like baking or shopping for last since they will be more flexible.
- Of course, do not forget to consider what activities you want to include with family so they can prepare as well.
Set strict boundaries between personal and work time.
We get it – this is all easier said than done! However, having a healthy balance between work and life requires a clear separation between the two. Start by putting limits on the time spent on work. You have the mandated hours set by your employer but working overtime or taking work home is not healthy. As you do this, make sure you use your time at work efficiently so you can check things off your list and feel accomplished instead of defeated.
Once you set your holiday work hours, stick to the agenda. While you are at work, use the time for work-related projects and meetings only. Do not bring your home life activities into the office, and keep your mind focused on the tasks listed on the schedule. If you plan your workday wisely, you should complete all your goals.
In addition, do not bring your work home with you. Once you leave the office, leave it behind you. Do not log in to your account or respond to emails. Ask your team to respect your personal time and explain that you will not be available after hours.
Remember to focus on yourself.
The main benefit of a healthy approach to balancing work and life is to reduce stress. Holiday activities are fun, but if you neglect yourself, you will become stressed and experience burnout. Schedule one hour every day just for you. Use this time to read a book, meet a friend for coffee, go to the spa for a facial, take a luxurious bubble bath, or get fresh air at the park.
[Need more self-care tips? Click here!]
Adding those extra steps will increase your energy and help support you in the extended holiday season.
It is not realistic to always make either work or life a top priority all the time – especially during the holidays, but there are plenty of ways in which we can balance our time and create healthy boundaries. Using some of these simple tips can easily ensure we’re keeping ourselves at our happiest and most prosperous.
Tags: healthy living, healthy living for office managers, healthy practice manager, holidays, medical office management, medical offices, office managers, tips for office managers, Work and Life During the Holidays Posted by
