I have been through a few calendar year ends at work. I find no-two-year ends are the same but they all have common elements. So, my tips for handling year-end at work are to ask the following well in advance:

• What new information is going to be required?
• What deadlines will be changing?
• What is the policy for working over the Christmas holiday period?
• Is there a time when no projects are allowed into production?
• Are extra resources required to be on stand-by to support production?
• How much budget is available for the rest of the year?
• How much budget is required for the rest of the year?
• Who in the team is planning to take holiday and get this confirmed?

Consider:

• Putting holiday cover in place
• If anyone is leaving at the end of the year, put time aside to make sure as much information as possible is handed over to the remaining people
• Understand who will need time off to go to children’s school plays; Parent evenings etc.

It is still important to have a work life balance and not let work consume you. If you are a parent, there will be an increase in events like children’s plays at school, exams, parties. So, diaries these, so that where possible, you can prevent agreeing to a work event when you know there is a school event.

I find it helps to:

• Priorities both work and home activate
• Be honest about what I can realistically achieve
• Ask for help where possible
• Accept not everything can and will get done
• Accept that when something does not go to plan, it is a learning not a failure
• Be patient with others
• Smile and have a laugh every day.

What are you going to do now?

Make that list / prioritise / think of who can help? What ever you decide, enjoy it. It will be so much easier.

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