Jingle Hell With the holidays coming up faster than you can say "Stuff that bird," maybe it's time you slowed down enough to enjoy them.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Imagine this: You take two weeks off during the holidays, allyour work gets done, and you have unlimited time to spend withfamily and friends. Yeah, right. While other people enjoy paidvacation time to cook that Thanksgiving turkey, you're meetingclient deadlines, shipping products, holding conference calls,helping with children's holiday pageants, preparing the housefor holiday parties, and (the ever famous) planning how and when tosee your family. It's enough to make a homebased entrepreneurfeel alittle . . . well . . . stressed.
"I tend to get stressed out over the holidays," saysMia Cronan, whose Greensburg, Pennsylvania-based EMC Mediapublishes the e-zine Main Street Mom
mainstreetmom.com)."I feel tremendous pressure, and I fall short. Before I knowit, the holidays are over, I'm wiped out, and things didn'tgo the way I 'pictured.' "
Cronan, 34, says the time just before the holiday itself is herbusiest, while she's trying to gather, organize and uploadpertinent content for her e-zine. "I have had to juggle thingsby using long car trips to read my tutorials, write articles,proofread my work and do research while my husband drives,"she says. "Or I've had to stay up well after visitingrelatives have gone to bed to get caught up on my work."
Does this sound like your life? If 16-hour days are giving youthe Christmas crankies, it's time to mellow out and enjoy theholiday groove. Remember, you are not Super Entrepreneur, able tomake a holiday turkey with one hand and complete client projectswith the other. "If you know the holidays will be busy foryou, be realistic about how much holiday activity you will be ableto participate in," advises Cheryl Demas, author of TheWork-at-Home Mom's Guide to Home Business (HazenPublishing). "Consider what kind of memories you are creatingfor your family. Will they remember the holidays as a happy time,or will they remember you as the stressed-out workaholic who neverhad time for anything?"
This year, brainstorm some ways to make your holiday easier. Doyou really have to burn the midnight oil sitting in front ofyour computer? Are you the only person who can clean thehouse? Timesavers like online shopping and getting your holidaymeals catered can help balance the clock in your favor.
"For the past two Christmases, I've done at least 90percent of my gift-purchasing online," says Cronan."Paying for shipping is worth not taking my three girls to themall and dealing with parking. I can shop at 3 a.m. if I haveto."
And remember, sometimes saying no is the best timesaver of all."If you don't have the time [to run holiday errands], sayso, and don't back down," says Demas.
The holidays are supposed to be fun, aren't they? So taketime to celebrate and schedule a little time for yourself."Schedule an hour per evening to do something family- andholiday-related, such as reading stories with your kids, bakingcookies or phoning an old friend," advises Cronan."Don't let the holidays pass you by while you'reworking away." Enjoy the season!
Heather Lloyd-Martin (heather@successwks.com) is theowner of SuccessWorks, a new media copywriting firm. A recoveringcrisis junkie, she prefers to avoid stress wheneverpossible.
