Create an Office Holiday Action Plan for Getting It All Done

How does your office navigate the busy holiday season? The last several weeks of the year are busy with holiday parties, family gatherings, shopping trips, and maybe even a trip or two. With an office full of people trying to manage work and their personal lives, it’s imperative to take steps to ensure that the work is still getting done during this busy season. The key to making it all happen…get organized and create an action plan! Here are this NYC Professional Office Organizer’s strategies for coordinating schedules so that all essential work is addressed during this festive time.

Create a Schedule

Before the holiday season gets into full swing, it’s best to organize a calendar of each staff member’s schedule during the month. Request all vacation plans and planned days off and add them to the calendar. Use this calendar to ensure that there’s sufficient staff coverage daily to complete important tasks. Share the calendar with your staff so they can all take ownership in working together to get projects done.

Prioritize and Delegate

Take time to look at those projects and tasks that should be completed during the holidays. Assign project lead responsibility to those team members who will be working during the holiday season. Also note the tasks that are less pressing and that could wait until after the holidays when everyone is back at work. This creates less stress in your office as the expectations of work to be completed will be more manageable.

Communicate All Plans 

Don’t let tasks fall through the cracks this season. Add your tasks and delegated projects to a project management system. This allows every person on your team to see what the rest of the team is working on, and it helps with accountability. As you create a holiday plan, share it with your team through a Cloud sharing program like Google Drive so that everyone can reference it as needed.

Stay Organized

When you are working on your own projects plus handling the tasks for a coworker, it can be easy to miss important steps or to get overwhelmed. Keep it simple by prioritizing all tasks based on importance and due date. Once you know the priorities, your energy can be focused on getting the work done as quickly as possible. Create a special flagging system on your to-do list to identify tasks due on a given day and color code tasks that are your colleague’s so that you can be sure you get those done.

The key during the holidays is not to work harder, but to work smarter. The objective is not to overload those who are taking on the extra tasks, but to organize the tasks and the schedule so that the members of your team are supporting each other as best they can. Keep it simple and make sure everything is written down so that your team can enjoy a more stress-free season. 

For more office organizing tips and hands on strategies for your office through the holidays and beyond, reach out to this NYC Professional Office Organizer.