Jodie Flowerday, a Policy Advisor working in the New Zealand tertiary sector, discusses how she maintains her motivation at work when the holidays are a distant memory. Wherever possible, avoid the trap of pushing work into the new year, but in the situations where you do need to, don’t make this work your only priority in your first weeks back, she writes.
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For many of us, the thought of returning to work after finally finding our holiday groove can be down-right depressing. We might have a pile of work to wade through left over from the year before, or end up doing mundane tasks throughout the day to keep occupied. For me, it’s the less busier times that affect my motivation more than the busy times. Operating under some pressure is more stimulating for me and increases my productivity. Sometimes though, I need to create this pressure myself.
In my organisation, Jan to mid Feb are quieter periods for most staff, including myself. My core responsibilities of providing drafting advice and assistance are less in demand due to many documents not needing to be reviewed over this period. This is no accident however, I engineered this for strategic reasons which I list below:
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- Deadlines for Jan and Feb are hard to meet due to staffing levels. This isn’t great for motivation as I feel like I’m not achieving anything. Trends indicated deadlines were better to set after Feb once my organisation was back to normal staffing levels and core activities had been operating for a few weeks. So, I didn’t schedule many document reviews for this period.
- Once staffing levels are largely back to normal, my workload increases with queries and requests coming in regularly and mini projects are allocated to me. This disrupts my progress on mid-long term projects. Having more time at the start of the year allows me to focus on the mid-long term projects that might get re-prioritised as the year progresses. This helps me feel like I’m making progress on my workload early in the year – a good thing for motivation.
- Part of my role is to research developments in my area and provide recommendations on how to make improvements – this isn’t something I get to turn my mind to in a structured way during the year. The start of the year is a good time to do this so I can reflect on what has developed in areas of interest over the last year or two so I can start to think about how to implement improvements for the year going forward. This gets me thinking creatively early on – a great motivator.
I like to think of the new year as a fresh start instead of just a continuation of the last; the thought of dealing with work I was avoiding at the end of the year before just isn’t motivating. Wherever possible, avoid the trap of pushing work into the new year. In the situations where you do need to, don’t make these your only priority in your first few weeks back. Try and work in a personal work goal or a piece of work that you really wanted to accomplish to help make you feel more in control and satisfied.
To keep the positivity going, also make a change outside of work. These could be habits, the way you get to and from work, or trying a new activity. I bought a commuter bike (something I have been wanting to do for a while) and decided to try biking to work.
You can’t always control your workload, but there are things you can do that can make sure you start the new working year in a good frame of mind.
Jodie Flowerday has been working in various roles since 2011. She currently works in the tertiary education sector in the role of Senior Policy Advisor for a tertiary education institution. Contact Jodie at Jodie.beker@gmail.com or connect via LinkedIn
