Surviving the Holiday Season

Hello. And welcome to the travelling introvert. Today, I'm gonna talk about the holiday season. The end of the year tends to be a very busy time for not only work stuff, whereas, there's more potlucks and get togethers and people wanting to do parties, these employee appreciation parties or holiday parties or, insert thing here, party. Also, you've got a lot more people wanting to spend time. A lot of family only time that happens depending on your dynamic. And so as an introvert, it is it is only September, and yet I'm planning how to get through the next sort of 4 month season, including January. And I wanted to share that with you in case it is helpful, because there our times where you can't help but have to go and do a thing and you know you're gonna be drained afterwards.

So thinking in advance about when times might be be like, actually sitting and looking at the calendar and thinking, oh, I can do something here. I shouldn't do something here. Let me block out time in my and then now for this thing. What does the festive season look like for you? Maybe you're working all the way through. I definitely had a job, previously, which I kind of really enjoyed, that it was the quiet season. I still had to work all the way through because payroll. Everyone still needs to get paid, but everything else died down. And it was a great time for me to organize things, and it was a great time me to clean things up and to prepare for the new year.

I've also worked other jobs where this is the busiest season of the year and you do not get a chance to catch a breath. And so knowing in advance when your days off are going to be and knowing that maybe I can only do 1 social activity during that time and prioritizing, maybe in advance. Like, who is it that you wanna spend that time with? And there some people who will energize you when you spend time with them and some will drain. So maybe trying to find a balance or planning advance who you're gonna see so that maybe one time it's someone draining and one time it's someone not draining and thinking about that in advance. Also, if you the person who does the cooking. Is that fun for you? Is that draining? And if it's draining, how can you make it easy on yourself in advance? Can you buy cuts of meat or or whatever materials that you need in advance? Can you pick recipes that are less strenuous? Or can you have a particular kitchen gadget that will help you. If it's something that you enjoy, now is the time to kind of look around and pick 1 recipe that will bring you joy. Maybe it took you the whole day to make, but it is that is your happy place.

And and put it in your calendar. Be like, this is my day that I'm gonna do this thing that brings me joy. Maybe you haven't been doing enough hobby stuff. And now's a really good time where a lot of, organizations are doing things like stitch alongs and color alongs and insert thing here along that you get to do with a group of people around a certain festivity. And so that brings a feeling of community while doing something that brings you joy and is restorative amongst all the chaos, having some pillars of stability and things that bring joy that are embedded in your calendar and embedded in your next coming months will be really impactful and helpful for for you and your energy levels. So just thinking about placing those now. And there could be some flexibility in them, but it's better if you keep them like appointments. And so you have those there already.

So when people start asking, oh, hey. Can you do this? And hey. Can do that, you know, in advance. Yes. I have the time and energy and bandwidth to do this. Or, actually, no. I'm gonna do this thing instead because it's better for me. The other thing is this also tends to be a time of conflict just due to the amount of people and different different people who aren't normally together during the year.

And so knowing how to diffuse situations, knowing what you will and won't talk about, knowing different topics and having conversations in mind that you would like to have or can have that are safe. Topics is also a really good thing to think about in advance. Also, if the the holiday requires gifts or tokens or something specific, you've been looking throughout the year for things. Also, now is a good time to sort of maybe you can buy in advance or plan in advance well, anything to sort of get things off your plate so you're feeling less overwhelmed and overloaded towards the end of the year. And, also, I think about next year. What do you want your next year to look like? But that that might be too much. So these are just some things that I personally do and I recommend to my clients to do to to prepare for the end of the year. And never mind.

You probably also have work stuff as well. So thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.