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CHRISTMAS CAN SOMETIMES seem like an audition for Ireland’s Fittest Family, but it should not be an endurance test.
The level of personal and professional activity at this time of year has a tendency to go off the scales.
Christmas parties, present shopping, work department lunches and dinner with friends are all things many people enjoy, but they can be a lot to take on.
This doesn’t even include the joys of Christmas tree shopping, dreams of a fairytale evening decorating the tree with your family, planning a Christmas dinner and trying to figure out how to manage extended family dynamics.
When I speak of burnout, I describe it as emotional, physical and mental exhaustion brought on by long periods of emotionally demanding situations.
If you’ve already been under pressure during the year, Christmas can quite literally be the icing on the cake.
If this sounds familiar, here are a few simple strategies to avoid burnout this holiday season.
1. Make a plan
Knowing exactly what you have to do reduces the potential for a stressful run up to Christmas. Simply put, make a plan.
Right now, write down a list of all the work tasks you may still have to complete.
Beside that list, write down all the personal tasks you absolutely have to do, then divide both the personal and work tasks by five (or seven for personal).
Share this work plan with colleagues if necessary and see point five further down to help with this.
If it’s relevant and appropriate, do the exact same with your personal list.
2. Learn to say no
Learning to say no is not always as easy as it seems, I get that.
However, when you have a clear plan set out, it makes it a lot easier to know your priorities and learn when to turn things down.
This might come as a shock, but the word no can be a complete sentence in its own right and doesn’t require a follow-up explanation.
3. Pace yourself
With the craziness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the shopping fever had already hit the public by the end of November.
If you still have a few presents to buy at this point, there seems to be a tendency to panic shop just for the sake of buying something.
Panic shopping just adds to stress, so pace yourself, refer back to your plan and stick to it.
The same pace applies to excessive drinking. It’s a lot easier to start your night drinking soft drinks or water before switching to alcohol later on than to do the opposite.
With plenty of really good non-alcoholic beverages out there, if might be good to decide now if you’re not going to drink on some nights and stick to that plan.
4. Shop local
Don’t get me wrong, online shopping is a great way to avoid stress but places like Amazon and large corporations don’t need all of the money this Christmas.
This year, if you still have time, make an effort to shop local. There are more and more food and craft markets popping up around the country, making this choice easier than ever.
Remember that every time you shop local you are supporting a person rather than a large corporation.
Buy as many local presents as you can and try to support local restaurants with meal vouchers rather than buying presents for the sake of it.
Alternatively, if there is someone close to you who could really do with a child-free night, cinema tickets and an offer to babysit could be the way to go.
This gift could make the world of difference to someone rather than another present they really don’t need.
5. Delegate, delegate, delegate
A common factor in people who are prone to experiencing burnout and overwhelm is they don’t delegate enough (or at all).
They often believe that no one can do the job as good as themselves so they end up doing everything alone.
However, let’s be clear, doing everything yourself is a sure way to get to burnout. So if you’re not comfortable with delegating, start getting out of your comfort zone.
If you’re cooking Christmas dinner this year, allow people to help especially if it’s your first time.
You don’t have to create the perfect dinner. It’s really all about bringing people together rather than impressing them with the level of your stress overload.
6. Be realistic in your expectations and maintain your perspective
Christmas is not a time to strive for perfection. There are too many curve balls that can come hurtling towards you when you least expect them.
It’s important to be very realistic in your expectations and, above all else, maintain a healthy and realistic perspective on the whole affair.
Plenty of things have gone wrong during my own Christmases – the oven that broke on Christmas Eve, the year I put the turkey in to roast but set the dial to grill, the year Santa didn’t bring what the eldest actually wanted, someone close getting ill, a family breakup – the list goes on.
Be kind to yourself and remember that this is just one day and not everything will be perfect.
7. Get some sleep
This is truly the mother of all self-kindness, self-care, or whatever you want to call it.
Seven or eight hours sleep a night is not going to get the shopping done, but it is going to give you the energy needed to get through the month.
Don’t let a week’s worth of social invitations get in the way of your sleep. December should be a month of kindness and gratitude, not an endurance test.
8. Exercise
With the change in social activities this month, it can be easy to stop the routine of exercising if it clashes with nights out. Even if you don’t already exercise, this is a perfect opportunity to start.
I don’t mean hitting the gym for hours of bootcamp sessions, it can be as simple as having a quick 20 minute walk at lunchtime or in the evening.
Exercise (regardless of what type) boosts your energy levels and elevates your mood.
Think of your days as being productive rather than busy. We can spend a huge amount of our days being busy and getting nothing done, rather than spending a few hours being productive and actually getting things done.
It’s important to treat yourself with kindness this Christmas.
The end of a decade can churn up lots of emotions around achievements and the things you may not have done.
Remember that you’re doing well regardless of what you have, or have not, achieved.
Siobhan Murray is a resilience/life coach and a psychotherapist. She is the author of The Burnout Solution, a book that offers a step-by-step guide to overcoming burnout.
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Leo is giving a presentation called “The Black & Tans… history’s most misunderstood peacekeepers”
@Patrick Agnew: no one in the comments has mention that arlenes leverage is gone boris johnson has a majority now the only thing that will come from the UK is cuts, austerity and privatisation thats nearly as bad as the Tans usually kills way more too
@Matthew O’Kane: She was thrown under the bus by him but still happily willing to pose for a nice smiley photograph. Spineless muttt
@John kane: Borris tells porkies to suit his agenda.Now he’s where he wants to be all those he made promises to will be phobbed off.Idiots to have believed “one who is economical with the truth” in the first place.
@Matthew O’Kane: On first read of your comment l read it “Arlene’s cleavage is gone…” lol
@Seamus McLaughlin: not lol – just immature.
Question is will Leo shake Michelle O Neills hand.
These two plonkers make me laugh as they meet to shake hands and steal the glory from the hard painstaking work of Simon Coveny and Julian Smith.
@Paul O’Sullivan: Well he is the leader of the political party i.e. FG who claim to have steered Ireland off the rocks and back to the sweetly run machine that it is today.
Boris trying to grab Arlene from under the bus after he pushed her under,Arlene must know her motherland don’t care about her and her creatures anymore,unionism is dying
@nicknack: That would be hard for him to do as Boris is also driving the bus ;)
@Jim Buckley Barrett: schrodinger’s Johnson in every sense of the word!
Now they’ll really start earning their money…
What a way to start a wet windy Monday, having to talk to those two.
Does anyone in Sinn Fein work they appear to be on social media night and day going on with the usual gibberish . Knocking on doors lads is the way to win elections
@jerry slattery: Perhaps their job IS promoting the party on social media? I know FFG pay people to do this.
@john doe: They never???
@jerry slattery: Good man Jerry, top class discourse. I work all day from my home office running my own business and doing a good job at it. Occasionally I look at comments section and participate in favour of my political leanings. I’m voting SF.
Leo vs Bertie? Garett vs Charlie?
@Rúraíocht: All four are mutually exclusive.
A pair of incompetent buffoons due to meet a bunch of crazed uncontrollable sh¡té throwing monkeys. Not a portent for a newsworthy story.
@Keith Mac Suibhne: Whatever one might call Johnson he’s not that… as for the other fella
@Keith Mac Suibhne: If it wasn’t for some of them so called sh¡té throwing monkeys forcing changes and standing upto the British attitude towards Ireland in the past perhaps , then they would all only be shaking Boris Johnson hands and that same buffoon would be telling you what to do…. Eaten bread is soon forgotten.
There’s f all in the kitty could be the main reason for Boris fiscal silence
no one in the comments has mention that arlenes leverage is gone boris johnson has a majority now the only thing that will come from the UK is cuts, austerity and privatisation. The North is gonna face some horrible tory gouging
@Matthew O’Kane: calm down Matthew. They all know what their facing. Those tory cuts and indeed the future Brexit fallout might indeed tax the minds of citizens -including unionists and perhaps the focus might turn back to where it inevitably will – a border poll and a shrinking unionist majority.
@Angela McCarthy: Well I hope you’re right on the Border poll Angela, hurry up with it, and hopefully there will be a 32 county Ireland soon.
The DUP abandoned Borris when he needed support, he was willing to shower them with cash to get it.
Now he doesn’t need the north for anything it will see nothing but cuts going forward.
The DUP are glad to be back in stormont and on the mews because they have become less relevant in the world than ever before.
Tough time’s ahead for NI as the easy cash will dry up and cuts will need to be implemented.
Leo part 2 hide and seek champs
A billion pounds?? They’ll be lucky if he bungs them a voucher for iTunes. Here’s your bus lads..
There you have the first tory cut – cutback on information around funding.
@Angela McCarthy: Well hopefully when they have the Border Poll, and there’s a 32. We wont have to worry about the Tory cuts? That would be good?
He probably thinks will swing the election for him
Great photo of the four on the steps of stormont. Boris and Michelle o Neill could pass as bother and sister!!
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