Surviving work on Christmas: How to stay productive when everyone else is celebrating

Surviving work

The bad news – not only Santa is working on the Christmas day. So do firefighters, nurses, journalists and… you?

The good news – it doesn’t have to be as bad as it sounds. Here are some tips on how you can live through working on Christmas holidays and actually make the best of it:

 

Tip #1 might surprise you at first, but seriously –

Avoid Christmas music, dismiss social media

Both will only hit you harder where it hurts. If you have stuff to do – listening to Frank Sinatra sing “Let It Snow” while simultaneously scrolling through dozens of Instagram photos featuring your friends celebrating is definitely not the most healthy idea.

Stay on the productive side – this is just one more working day for you.

 

Tip #2 – Enjoy this unusual quietness in the office

Time between Christmas and New Year is probably the best time to summarize 2018 and plan 2019. Or to answer those 300 postponed emails. Or to figure out how these newly introduced features of the CRM system actually work.

 

Tip #3 – Balance offline/online activities

Check in advance how you plan on getting to work. Public transport may be unavailable in some places. In other places, traffic can be really heavy (especially on popular highways). In any case, just be ready to work remotely.

You’ll need several things for this:

  • Keep all the documents you might need in a secure cloud which you can easily access not only on a desktop computer but also on a mobile device;
  • Make sure in advance you have all apps installed in their mobile versions on your cell; Check the functionality of these mobile apps. How different are they from the desktop version in terms of most important features and overall functionality?
  • Double check whether or not you can share your mobile Internet with your other devices. Are there any limitations under your subscription plan?

 

Tip #4 – Have a plan B for the no-Internet scenario

Imagine the situation when you still have to work on holidays even though you already travelled to a getaway place. Or the situation when you actually came to the office but your Internet provider was having a holiday blackout with support phones not responding to your calls.

Provided you still have enough motivation, you can go on working in the so-called “offline mode”.

Google documents, for example, support offline editing, but! only in Google Chrome and only for one Gmail account on the same device.

Dropbox offers selected offline access to documents as well (but you have to arrange the offline status for each document manually and in advance).

Under SignNow’s offline mode, you can e-sign documents you have stored in your account, add new fields to these documents and even send them for e-signing by other people. All documents e-signed in the offline mode will be automatically updated once you are back online.

 

Tip #5 – Use this unique marketing opportunity.

Just imagine, all your competitors are closed for the holidays – but you’re working! This is a zero-competition situation, in which you need to know your target audiences:

  • Last-minute shoppers who forgot to buy something or changed their mind;
  • People who are also working during the holidays due to the specific nature of their business (even santas need to eat, right?);
  • And people who just don’t celebrate Christmas and thus may be active customers, or users during the holiday.

Don’t miss the chance to announce “Yes, we’re working!” and reap the benefits from this situation. In fact, these people can actually end up later becoming your most loyal clients.

Finally, keep in mind the following: holidays are just days on a calendar. You can always choose another day – and make it a holiday.