Make It Your Business to Steer Clear of Holiday Stress

It's the most wonderful time of the year - the holidays. At least they're supposed to be in theory.

But the reality for most business owners and employees alike is that the holiday season can be the most stressful few months of the whole year.

Fortunately there are a number of steps you can take to alleviate the pressure and have a more enjoyable time with friends and family.

Among them:

Delegate

As the holiday season and end of the year approaches, it's easy for work to get stacked up on your plate. As a boss, you'll want to make sure that you've distributed that workload evenly among your employees to make your life and theirs easier. Another important thing to consider as the holidays approach is scheduling. For office jobs and service jobs alike, people often use the holidays as vacation time or paid time off. As a business owner, you'll want to make sure your remaining assistants and other employees are qualified and ready to cover those tasks and responsibilities.

Be OK With Turning Down Requests

As the article, “7 Stress Management Tips for the Holiday Season” points out, if you say "yes" to everything around the holidays it's a recipe for stress. Even office celebrations can become overwhelming if you don't know your own bandwidth. Don't be afraid to let someone else plan the office New Year's party. If money is tight and going to cause you more stress, feel free to pass on this year's office Secret Santa gift exchange.

Don't Sweat What You Can't Control

If you're working with clients, they may not be reachable as their own holiday vacations approach. As long as you've put in a good faith effort to do your part of the work, there's no need to stress yourself out any further. Likewise, you may find yourself traveling back home on a plane that has zero Wi-Fi and you planned on doing work. These things happen and they're beyond your control.

Be Realistic with End-of-Year Deadlines

The urge to get everything done before the year ends is tempting. You want to go into the New Year feeling like you have a clean slate. Unfortunately, this is often an unrealistic expectation. Instead, take a look at all the tasks you need to accomplish and prioritize which can wait until January.

Vacation Like You Mean It

The holidays are a chance to recharge your batteries so make sure that you're actually doing that. Commit to only checking your work emails once a day or set up an automated away message so people will know that you're truly off the clock. If you have a reputation for bringing your work home too often, ask friends and family to hold you accountable. This can mean anything from limiting "work talk" at the dinner table to even hiding your company laptop for a few hours.

Following these steps can help business owners and employees avoid stress this holiday season and truly connect with friends and family.

They'll keep you from burning out and ensure a fresh start in January.