We’re now into June and the holiday season is creeping ever nearer. Whether you are going abroad or staying in the UK, there is nothing more distracting in the weeks leading up to going away than crossing absolutely everything off your checklist and making sure that you remember to take everything you could ever possibly need for any situation that might pop up.
Whether you’re off to tan on a Mediterranean beach, get lost in a foreign city or even just get muddy at Glastonbury for the weekend, there’s no doubt that your productivity might slip as your mind wanders onto thinking about what you’ll be doing this time in a few weeks. Fear not, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve that can keep motivated at your office desk before heading off.
Our Four Favourite Tips For Maintaining Productivity Before We Hit The Beach
Tip #1: Holiday Fun Points!
If you’ve read Knowledge Ninja, then you will already be familiar with the fun points technique that we talked about in this book. Have a think about how you can relate this to your holiday checklist. Reached inbox zero on Friday afternoon? Reward yourself with going out and getting that new pair of sunglasses you wanted. Beaten the project deadline? Reward yourself with booking an excursion to do on your trip when you get home that evening. The list is customisable and endless, but should help with getting that release of Dopamine going and lifting your mood before your holiday!
Tip #2: Inbox Zero!
Whether you are going away for a long weekend, a week or even lucky enough to be going away for a fortnight, we all know that there is going to be a worryingly larger than expected amount of emails waiting for us for when we return. Try and help this by keeping your inbox as clear as possible before you go, the last thing you want is the added pressure of knowing that you have old tasks waiting to be done whilst you’re out enjoying yourself!
Learn the secrets to inbox zero for 99p with Graham’s ‘Get Your Inbox To Zero’ ebook.
Tip #3: More done now, means less to do later
While realistically in some jobs this maybe unlikely, its good to try and think this way anyway. Simply put: the more work and effort you put in now, the less projects you will have on your desk waiting for you when you come back. The last thing you want to be doing when you’ve got the holiday blues is picking up the bits of work that you couldn’t find the motivation to do before you left!
Tip #4: Get the Summer body going whilst in the office
Try out the exercises we put in our Deskercise blog post the other day and get started on that summer body whilst in the office!
Got any more tips you think we should add? Leave a comment below or tweet us at @thinkproductive.