Well, the holidays are upon us for 2016.
This was indeed an interesting cycle for the holiday’s as both Christmas and New Year’s Eve has fallen over a weekend.
This means you are either excited, that the holidays are here; or thoroughly disappointed as you didn’t get the extra days off during the week.
Regardless, the holidays are always a time of reflection and in some cases planning.
If you’re like me, you were probably asked on numerous occasions “How was your Holiday, did you do anything fun?”
I’m sure the majority of people look forward to their Holiday for a chance to relax, recharge and get away from it all.
Me? I’m the exact opposite. Whether it’s the workaholic side of me or not, I usually spend the holidays in full “clean the clutter” mode.
This means going through hundreds of email that may have gone unattended, responding to Linked In requests which always seem to take forever, cleaning out my sent files to get down under 10,000 so outlook won’t crash, writing proposals, setting up a new computer, updating my web site, looking at a more efficient way to do a blog, or just plain cleaning up the clutter.
I’m sure that doesn’t sound like much fun to most of you.
To me, it’s all too exciting.
Why?
Are you familiar with the Steven Covey book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”?
I keep thinking of principal number seven around this time- Sharpen the Saw.
This the theory that if you put two people in a race to saw down a tree, who will win? Well, if they both started out with the same dull blade and one person starts right away, while the other one takes long enough to sharpen the saw, the second participant will win.
Sharpen the saw means taking the time to set things up, get your affairs in order, learn how to utilize a new technology to be more efficient, learning a new skill.
Yes, sharpen the saw to me always meant taking the time to clean things up, put things in order, and be more productive and efficient moving forward.
This aspect, at least for me personally, puts me in a much better perspective and frame of mind coming out of the holiday.
This often meant not fully spending the time in relaxation mode, but one of planning and sharpening.
Rather than continually putting off what needed to be done during the year, I take the holidays to try and go off the grid.
I use the down time to set myself up for the following months. This aspect of cleaning the clutter for a few days, give me months of relaxation in the future.
Now, I’m able to move forward with my days and weeks without the weight and cloud of clutter hanging over my head of unfinished tasks.
This may not be the perfect way, and it may not be the right way for others, but it seems to work well for me.
Using the time to put more things in order actually works to clear up more of my schedule in the weeks and months to come.
So, when I’m asked if I did anything fun over the weekend, I can say to the world, “Absolutely. I cleared the clutter”.