My executive likes to say email is the gateway drug of work, and slack is the crack of work. During the holidays this season, say no to drugs.
Finishing the year strong is ok, but finishing the year rested is much better.
Don’t work over the holidays if you can help it, and don’t convince yourself you can’t help it. Here are six tips on how to rest well during the holidays.
- Turn off your phone.
- Avoid checking email.
- Write down your goals for next year.
- Sleep.
- Spend focused, 1-on-1 time with your spouse and kids.
Grab my 5-step ebook here if you need help writing down your goals.
P.S. – Join our new Leader Assistant Slack Community to connect with hundreds of assistants from around the world!
LEADERSHIP QUOTE
He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.
– Benjamin Franklin
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Jeremy Burrows 0:00
Today’s leadership quote comes from Benjamin Franklin. He that can take rest is greater than He that can take cities.
Podcast Intro 0:12
The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become competent game changing leader assistance.
Jeremy Burrows 0:19
Episode 36. Thank you so much for listening. Oh, I’m old. And here’s your host, my dad. Hey, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to The Leader Assistant Podcast. It’s episode 36. And I am going to take a break this week from interviews and share a little bit of tips and advice on how to rest well during the holiday season as it is approaching. So it’s been kind of a long, crazy year, you’re running on fumes, but you tell yourself you need to finish strong because you have too much work to do. So instead of looking forward to some time off, you’re dreaming about how much you could get done with a few days of uninterrupted time. That’s sounds familiar to me, for sure. So we don’t know if that’s you. But I know I like to make all sorts of excuses about how far behind I am and how far ahead I could get. So you may be thinking everyone else is taking time off for the holidays, it’s the perfect time for me to get some work done. But do you really want to start off the new year without anything left in the tank. So I just wanted to encourage you to finish the year rested. Don’t over work during the holidays, if you can help it. And don’t convince yourself that you can’t help it. If you truly think you won’t survive without working over the break, ask your business partner, your significant other your staff, or even your board, what they think I’d be shocked if they didn’t encourage you to enjoy some time off. So finishing the year strong is okay. But finishing the year rested is much better. So make it a priority to give yourself and your co workers and your team members. Encourage them as well to take some quality time off this holiday season to rest and recuperate for the for the new year. So I have six quick tips that I’m going to share that helped me rest well during the holidays. So tip number one is turn off your phone, maybe you use your phone for taking family pictures or looking at barbecue recipes over the holidays, that’s fine, but turn it on airplane mode, turn off notifications, log out of your email. Sometimes I like to move my email app icon to the last page of the phone. So I don’t see it every time I look at my phone. And if you have an iPhone, you can even use the Do Not Disturb feature and put like your important family members in your favorites so that their calls get through. Tip number two is avoid checking email, again, sign out of your account. might even want to temporarily change your password so you can’t get in or lock your device in a safe whatever you have to do to avoid checking your email over the break do it. My CEO likes to say email is the gateway drug of work. And he also says slack is the crack of work. So take that as you will, you can quote him on that. But email is going to suck you into getting in the mindset of I’ve got to work or I’ve got to think about this and do this. So again, tip number one turn off your phone. Tip number two, avoid checking email. The third tip is to write down your goals for the next year. So once you’ve had a couple days to decompress, take some time to think through what three to five things you want to accomplish next year. Don’t overanalyze or spend hours planning how you will accomplish each one again, you’re supposed to be resting, but journal, list them out on a notebook or on a whiteboard. This will help you clear your head so that you can actually enjoy your time off. So if you do think of things at work, you can send yourself a text or an email or write it in a notebook. Just get it off your chest so that you don’t think about it and worry that you’re gonna forget about it. Now, if you need a more kind of in depth self assessment to help you clarify your goals and free up your time and energy. I’ve got a five step process eBook for free download on my website. You may want to set more aside more time to do this during a work day. But some of for some of you it might be a very good rest experience for you to just kind of take a couple hours and work through the five step process for more time, energy and success. So you can check out that book or that ebook download worksheet. Add leader assistant.com forward slash five steps leader assistant.com forward slash five steps. And you can use that tool to help you write down your goals for the next year. Tip number four is sleep. I know it’s cool to brag about your lack of sleep, but it’s not healthy. Try going to bed early or sleeping in and don’t feel guilty about either one. If you’re tired in the middle of the day, take a nap. The best part about sleeping is you can’t work while you’re asleep. At least I haven’t met anyone who could. One year I was so tired at like four o’clock during the holidays, that I just lay down and I ended up sleeping like 14 hours that night. To my body. I just listened to my body. That’s what it needed and I and I ran with it. So get some sleep. Tip number five, spend some focused one on one time with your spouse or partner or significant other and kids go on a walk take each one out to eat separately play a board game even if you prefer to call them bored B O R E D games like I do, watch a movie, then discuss it, ask them what they would like to do, and do it with him. And remember to turn your phone off. I’m going to take my boy here in a minute to go pick up a treat because I’m going out of town tomorrow so it’s nice little one on one time with one of my boys. Okay, the sixth way to rest well during the break is exercise. Many of us stare at a computer all day at our job. That’s what I do at least a lot of assistants is probably what you do. So take advantage of the chance to move around play basketball, go climbing do jumping jacks go for a swim go for a bike ride. You can go for a run to but only if something is chasing you. I’m not a huge fan of running but it is good for you. So go for it if you want. So anyway, to recap the six ways to rest well during the holidays. One turn off your phone to avoid checking email three write down your goals for the next year for sleep, and more sleep five spin focused one on one time with your kids or partner or spouse or significant other. And then number six is exercise move around get your blood pumping I hope these are helpful. Feel free to reach out to via our Slack community at Slack dot leader assistant.com Check out the show notes at leader assistant.com forward slash 36 Where I will link to the five steps ebook as well as this Slack community. Enjoy your family enjoy your friends, enjoy your rest enjoy your time off. Finish the year rested, not burned out. Talk to you next time.
Podcast Intro 8:07
You on Apple podcast goburrows.com
