There are certain times of the year when getting things done is just hard. During these times, for whatever reason, the amount of time it takes to get anything done seems to double or triple. Probably one of the worst examples of this begins at Thanksgiving and ends a week after New Years. The dreaded “Holiday Trifecta”, you have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all within weeks of each other, a killer combination when trying to get anything done. What really hurts you during this time are vacations. Everybody starts taking time off, and not just a few days here and there. Nope, this is when all of that vacation time that everybody has been saving is put to use. One week, two weeks, three weeks, even a month, there really is no limit during this time. This means that key people, people you need to approve decisions, etc. can be gone at crucial times thus crippling your effectiveness.

Is all hope lost then? Should you just forget about getting anything accomplished until January? Absolutely not. While problems during this time are unavoidable, you can take steps to mitigate their impact on your work. Here are things you can do to make sure that if you can’t be at 100% during this time, you are as close as possible:

Read the rest of this entry »