Making it to the Christmas holidays can feel like dragging yourself across a finishing line. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Get to the New Year threshold with a positive attitude to the work you left behind

How many working days are there left until Christmas? Enough, too many or an irrelevant question because the way things are going you won’t be taking a break. One of the problems with working to a point where almost everything is going to close down for a while is that the run up can be so frenzied you end up too exhausted to enjoy your time off.

In the run-up
People convince themselves that everything must be finished before the holiday and so impose a lot of unnecessary pressure all round. Although it’s satisfying to tie up all the loose ends before Christmas, don’t push it to extremes. The very worst thing you could do is to take work home with you. You need a complete break from your job – knowing there’s that report you could be analysing tucked away somewhere will make you feel uneasy and guilty. Remove that possibility by leaving all work where it belongs – in the office.

Anything that isn’t done will keep until after the New Year. Holidays are times to indulge yourself and do the things you enjoy. That takes energy and you don’t want to spend the time recuperating from overwork. Katy Hale, who works at a busy estate agency in Manchester, has noticed that she often goes down with a cold over the Christmas break. ‘We work flat out in the run up to Christmas, because everyone wants things sorted out before the holiday. I stay late all through December and then when I finally do stop it’s like my body decides it has time to be ill. It seems so unfair to spend the break in bed feeling grotty.’

Next page: what you can do

Rely on a plan
Be realistic about what can and can’t be done. Start thinking and planning early. Make a list of your most urgent tasks in order of priority. Estimate how long you need for each, then add half as much again. This will show which tasks can be completed comfortably before your workplace is overwhelmed with the sort of goodwill that makes concentration difficult. All other jobs will have to be put on hold until after New Year. Look at your priorities one more time to see if tasks need to be swapped around. Then tell the people affected by the choices you’ve made. Most will be fine about waiting longer if they know what’s happening. The more warning you give them, the more chance they have to adjust their own arrangements. They’ll find it so much less frustrating than being let down at the last moment.

Approaching even the most daunting workload in this rational and organised way helps make things feel manageable. Knowing you can achieve the goals you’ve set saves wasting energy worrying about how you’re going to fit everything in. You’ll work more effectively and may even have time to do some of the things not on the top priority list.

Put your feet up
This end of year holiday is unusual because everyone takes time off and everything stops for a week or so. Even if you work your socks off to get things finished, the chances are that your efforts with be thwarted by someone else not having got to the same stage of completion. So relax, it’s the season of goodwill. Extend that to yourself as well as to others.