Mental health takes a beating at Christmas. How not to go crazy at work in the Christmas run-up?

Author: Zuzana Kocáková

Lifestyle

4 reading minutes

Holidays of peace and tranquility? Rather holidays of missed deadlines, reports and postponed project releases. Don’t let your spirits slip, we’ve got some tips for you to enjoy the Christmas season without unnecessary stress. How to approach the three stressful weeks in December as pragmatically as possible and get everything done?

Set boundaries and deadlines with your clients

In some cases, this recommendation may be more for team or department leaders. Not every programmer communicates directly with the client or has the ability to suggest a process change. However, it is always possible to arrange a meeting with the manager, at least at msg life Slovakia. Every project should have its own time protection zone or so-called “cushion”, which prevents it from slipping into the red area in the calendar. Of course, this happens often, but Christmas holidays are specific in this. Two to three weeks off can slow down a project considerably. Ideally, don’t schedule key milestones for the end of the year unless the product or service strategy is related. A similar solution will be appreciated by clients who also want to take a break over Christmastime.

Time management techniques

December is a great time to learn the basic principles of time management. If this is a busy time for you and you are working for example as a Java Developer Senior, IT Tester Consultant Medior, or Business IT konzultant on various projects, it’s a great time to get started:

• Handle emails quickly, ideally in the morning.
• If the only tasks that land on your desk are those labeled “high-priority, lead, traffic,” or if project manager ‘s own priorities are messy, bring it to their attention.
• Don’t procrastinate on social media, try to relax with monotonous, quick, lower-priority tasks. You’ll put off more important work until later, but you won’t feel bad about procrastinating and you’ll leave the office earlier.
• It is not always necessary to work on a project until the evening. If you work late into the night on something, efficiency decreases with each passing hour. Save the problem for the morning, you’ll be surprised how quickly you solve it once you’ve had a good night’s sleep.

Set your own deadlines

Your project deadlines are set by your project manager. A good guide is to set your own internal deadlines that take into account all projects and work and non-work activities. This will help you put tasks in context and evaluate how much time you have left to complete them. You can use a traditional diary or create a simple board through the Trello app. Throughout the year, only a detail-oriented person – or a very busy person – would probably do this, but it comes in handy for everybody before Christmas.

Some things you won’t get done. Don’t be afraid to say it

There are tasks that landed on your desk late, or branched out and require more time, testing, procedures. If by chance it’s not clear from the project status, communicate it transparently. Your own time management and setting internal deadlines have helped you better estimate what you have time for and what you can get done. Knowing ahead of time that something can’t be done on time is actually an advantage. Tasks can be rescheduled, delegated to other colleagues, and more time can be allocated in the next period. But first, the manager needs to know about it.

Shut down the PC

The aim of all the previous points is this: when you leave the office or turn off the computer in your office before Christmas, you will know that you have done everything you can. You’ve handed over what you needed to. The things that weren’t done were well communicated. Now it’s time to rest and recharge.

Share article

Mental health takes a beating at Christmas. How not to go crazy at work in the Christmas run-up?

Zuzana Kocáková

At msg life Slovakia I take care of the company culture, events and I am part of the marketing team. I like a job where I can be creative and contribute to making my colleagues at msg feel good. I regularly prepare for you not only news and interesting things from the world of information technology and insurance, but also from behind the scenes events at msg life Slovakia.