4 Things To Help At Home Workers Get Back In the Groove After The Holidays

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boxes

The hardest part of the holidays? Going back to work.

The alarm clock. The traffic. The piles of papers greeting you, the ones left on your desk as you scrambled out the door for the holidays.  The thousands of emails that somehow filled your inbox while everyone was supposed to be on vacation.

Doesn’t anyone understand what “vacation” means anymore?

Going back to work is grueling for all of us but can be particularly difficult for those of us who work from home. We have nowhere to escape to; no colleagues to commiserate with now that the holidays are over and it’s back to the ol’ grind.

Once again the separation of Home and Work becomes blurred.  Especially if we have yet to de-decorate and our home still “feels” like Christmas. What we face is that holiday ho-hum feeling that seeps into our work space.

I will share the situation I faced, which is probably similar to many who work from home:

  • Leftover holiday treats called out to me from the kitchen, tempting me to walk away from my work.
  • Empty gift boxes were stacked in the living room that needed to go to the trash.
  • The Christmas DVD’s were still on the coffee table from recent viewing.
  • And the tree! It was still up, decorated, in all its glory.

Not to mention the outside décor.  Even though I rarely venture out to the front of the house, I knew it was there.

Situations like this call for tough love.  Here are four things people who work from home should do to get back in the groove after the holidays:

Take down the tree. 

This is the most time consuming, yet the most rewarding and best way to feel like Christmas has left the building.  I put it off yet once I got started it only took me an hour to remove the ornaments and pack them away.  Yes, we like to think a lighted tree can be considered a “desk lamp” but it really is a distraction. Do. It. Now.

Remove All Remaining Holiday Décor. 

While you’ve got the spirit, go ahead and box up the rest of the holiday décor.  This seemed daunting to me, yet again took only another hour once I started. Move all of the boxes back to their storage place – or at least to another room where you can’t see them.

Put the holiday cards in a box. 

These tempt me to stop working and re-read them, so “out of sight, out of mind”.  Note that I didn’t say “trash them” – unless of course you have already reviewed them and noted address changes. I haven’t done that, so I put mine in a box for later review – I do that while watching mindless TV like “The Bachelor”.  But they are out of sight for now.

Hide the Christmas candy and treats.

The treats call to me when I’m working and distract me.  I have to be tough and throw out the items that I really don’t need, like or want to eat.  For example, the caramel corn from the treat tower – we still had last year’s package so my guess is we are not going to eat this year’s.   The rest is hidden from view in the pantry.  It’s better for my waistline and my productivity.

Total time spent:  Less than three hours.  That’s one morning – or less, depending on how early you start.

What are you waiting for?  Get started now so the rest of your week is productive!

Besides, Valentine’s Day will be here before you know it.

When You Give A Girl Some Egg Nog

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Egg nog

What one word or phrase would describe your house right now? Festive? Decorated? Santa-ready? Stockings hung by the chimney with care?

My word is un-Christmas-y.

What? That’s not a word, you say?

Don’t argue with me; I’m not in the mood. If I say it’s a word, it’s a word.

Despite my current state of mind, I love the holidays. Both Hubby and I do.  We go all-out: décor outside and in; a fully decorated “real” tree (nothing faux here); an explosion of red and green everywhere.  The highlight for us is our Christmas card, a unique creation that visually tells the story of our year.

We decorate as though we had children. Our four-legged fur daughter just sighs each year when we bring in the tree that blocks her view of the backyard.

We love having people over to share the holidays and have fun in our home.  No grinches allowed!

Yet this year is different.  We’re just not in the mood.

Hubby’s travel schedule has been grueling. This fall my travel was crazy too.  Both of us have shoulder injuries that have us feeling less-than-one hundred percent.  And recently we’ve dealt with sad news of the passing of two friends just at holiday time.

That all adds up. And it’s drained us.

Where does that leave us decoration-wise?

We purchased the dead tree, a.k.a. a Christmas tree, and even managed to get the lights on.  But that’s it.   We added a few poinsettias, thanks to mom and her voracious appetite for Black Friday sales.  In a burst of energy fueled by caffeine and football excitement, Hubby even got the decorations out of the closet and moved them to the living room where they’ve sat ever since.

The boxes and bags allude to holiday décor, with labels that read, “Green and purple glass ornaments”, “Assorted Christmas stuff”, and “Wooden Nativity”.  All are marked “Fra-gee-lay”. 

That last one was our attempt one year at Christmas humor.  Watch the film, “A Christmas Story” if you don’t understand.

To top things off, Hubby took off again this week on one of his whirl-wind business trips.  That means if I want decorations, I’m on my own.

Part of me wants to just sit on the couch, eat cookies, drink some egg nog, close my eyes and hope that Santa’s Elves will magically appear, decorate and leave.   

The problem with that plan, aside from the obvious – that the elves would put the ornaments in the wrong place, duh – is that it means I’ve ceded control of my Christmas holiday.  I’m letting other things take the reins in terms of the way I want my holiday to turn out.

Now that I think about it, I don’t let other people or things take control of my personal brand message in business; why should I let a little tiredness or holiday cray-cray get the best of me and take control of my Christmas?

Well that’s not happening to this gal.  I’m going to pull myself off of the couch, drink my eggnog, turn on the holiday tunes and start decorating.  Watch out; our house will be decorated so well that when Hubby gets home he won’t even recognize this place!

That’s what happens when you give a girl some egg nog.

Holiday Temptations

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peppermints

Growing up, we had a strict Rule when it came to sweets in our house: they were only allowed on Sundays.  That’s right; no candy, gum, cookies, cake or dessert of any kind except on Sunday.  Special occasions such as birthdays and holidays were exempt from the Rule; Sis and I lived for these days.

While the Rule was harsh, our parents had taken the dentists’ recommendation to heart that sugary sweets were a “no-no” and the Rule was meant to “save” our teeth from cavities. By limiting temptation, they reasoned, we would forever refrain from candy and other bad foods and end up with pristine, perfect teeth.

Ha! One look inside my mouth and you’ll be blinded by the amount of silver fillings, so that plan didn’t really work out well.

Although my parents tried; really they did.  When I was three, mom dressed me for Halloween yet neglected to tell me about Trick-or-Treating.  Instead, she had me pass out the treats when other kids came to the door, for fear I would be tempted to eat candy if I had been allowed to experience Trick-or-Treating myself.

As we got older, Sis and I looked forward to Sundays as if Christmas came each week.  That was the day we could take some of our allowance and buy candy to eat for the day.  It was so fun to pick out what we wanted, rationing it throughout the day to make it last.  We’d savor every bite as if we would never have a treat again.

The good news is while I do appreciate a good cookie, ice cream and other treats, I can literally ignore sweets unless I really want something.  Unlike Hubby, who hears treats calling his name in the middle of the night from the pantry.  He makes fun of me and my ice-cream eating record:  one time I got 19 servings out of a pint of ice-cream.

I know you’re thinking I must be the Queen of Resisting Holiday Temptations, huh?

Nope.  There’s something about the holiday season that sends all of my willpower right out the door.

For some reason I feel like it’s okay to succumb to temptation during the holidays, and all sorts of strange reasoning comes into play. I crave the Peppermint Mocha coffee at Starbucks; these are okay to drink because I need to stay warm during the cold weather.  Tins of holiday popcorn and cookies have a magnetic pull; popcorn is actually “corn” and those cookies are so small the calories don’t really count.   And don’t get me started on the assortment of dips that seem to appear at the office; I’m sure these are nutritious because we use carrots for dipping.

Shopping is another temptation.  While I always enjoy the sport of shopping, usually I can spend time in the stores without spending, simply enjoying the activity of looking.  But not during the holidays.  There must be subliminal messaging in the Christmas music that’s piped into every store.  As I’m shopping for gifts, the sales compel me to adopt a “One for them, one for me” mentality.  The “spirit of giving” takes over and I decide to give to myself as well as others.  Strange reasoning comes into play here too: the prices are too good to pass up and I convince myself I’m buying things I need anyway.

A huge temptation for me during the holidays is to slack-off.  The closer we get to Christmas and New Year’s, the less I feel like working.  This could be a leftover imprint from my younger years when we all had a nice break from school.  Those kind of things are hard to forget, you know.

Or since we take vacation once a year in the early summer, could it be that my mind is just ready for another break?  No, it’s got to be something more sinister than that; it’s that holiday music and spiked popcorn, I tell you!

For those in the job market, there’s an even bigger temptation: to stop looking for a job.  On the one hand, it seems like a good idea as we rationalize “Hiring managers are on vacation” and “Companies will be more serious about hiring at the first of the year”.

From what I’ve seen this year I think we are fooling ourselves and succumbing to holiday temptation.

First, there appears to be more job listings – great news for anyone who is looking for an opportunity.  Second, my guess is that companies want to interview now in order to be ready with new hires at the beginning of the year.  We at least need to submit our application so the company knows we are interested.  Besides, if others are tempted to stop looking, then we stand a better chance of getting noticed.

It’s easy to give-in to temptation and stop searching for a job as we get closer to the holidays.  I get it; really I do.  Yet try to stay with it until Santa takes off from the North Pole.  It will be a happier holiday and a brighter New Year if you do.

 

You Never Know When You’re Going to Get the Perfect Picture

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It’s Thanksgiving, and you know what that means.  No, I’m not talking about food, although the holiday does mean being thankful, and it does include turkey, dressing and pie.  For me and Hubby, Thanksgiving means we have to buckle down and finalize our Christmas card.  Hubby and I pride ourselves on creating a unique holiday card, the kind that tells a story with only a picture or very few words.  Each year we strive to create one that’s even better than the year before.  Usually there’s a big event that tells the story, such as the year Hubby was laid-off.  We re-created “American Gothic”, the couple standing in front of a farm house with the guy holding a pitchfork, except I was in a business suit holding a laptop and Hubby wore sweats, my apron and bunny slippers, while holding a toilet brush in one hand and a spatula in the other.  Clearly the news was, “Guess who’s staying at home these days?”

This year, we’re in trouble. We got nothin’.   It’s not that we haven’t talked about the card, or brainstormed ideas, or taken tons of pictures.   This year we haven’t really done anything except work way too much. No exotic vacations.  No life-changing events like a lay-off, which is really a blessing but it’s a curse when it comes to the Christmas card.  Yes, Hubby did receive a promotion (Way to go, Hubby!) and I did get my book published (which is a great Christmas or Hanukkah gift, I might add – www.talesoftheterminated.com).  But our card is about both Hubby and me, not something that highlights just one of us.  Besides, neither of those happenings scream, “Cool holiday card”, do they?

The biggest consideration is that our Christmas card always includes a photo of us.  Challenge is that Hubby has a difficult time getting his picture taken.  He’s not embarrassed or shy.  But just one look at the camera or photographer and Hubby goes all deer-in-the-headlights and closes his eyes. In almost every-single-shot.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a professional photog or a candid shot by a friend, he can’t seem to relax for a photo shoot.  Until now.

Saturday was supposed to be “date-night”, yet errands had us out until dinnertime. Tired and hungry, we opted for a quick dinner and a stroll at the mall for some fun window shopping and people watching. By chance we stumbled upon a “do-it-yourself” photography set-up.  Not the little machine that spits out a row of pictures while you both try to sit on the mini-chair behind the curtain. This was a real photography set-up, with a big light and a backdrop.  We watched as another couple played in front of the camera, with the photos popping up on a computer in front of us while we tried to figure out how it worked.  Turns out it was basically free, and only a minimal cost if you wanted one of the images for your own use. No one was in line so I coaxed Hubby into giving this a try.  “But I’m not dressed well, and my hair isn’t fixed,” cried Hubby.  Yeah, that’s normally a girl-thing, but I’m glad he’s interested in his appearance.  I reminded him that I wasn’t exactly looking my best either.

We decided to be brave and go for it. One of us held a small clicker that controlled the camera. We started out just smiling, and then started making goofy poses. Laughing and having fun, we didn’t care if anyone saw us and it was a great way to spend time together.  Afterward, as we reviewed the forty-plus images on the computer screen, our jaws dropped. The.Best.Pictures.Ever. All black and white photos, both of us smiling, laughing, having fun, and eyes wide open.

At that moment it hit me: our Christmas card photo was here! I’ll admit that there were a few “oopses” in the bunch, like one with part of my head cut off and one with Hubby holding the clicker in plain sight of the camera.  But there were more good ones than bad and Hubby had his eyes open in almost all of them, which is something new for us. Even our outfits and hair look good.  It took us a while to narrow down our choices but we did find our 2012 Christmas card photo. No, I’m not going to share it with you now. You’ll get yours in the mail or will eventually see it on Facebook. But trust me, it’s perfect!