The countdown is on: just ten days left in the year!  For many of us, that still includes about a week left in the office working.  Take advantage of this time to prepare yourself for the New Year.  Rather than leave your office and your work a huge mess, racing to complete deadlines and get to the holidays, use this time to get organized.  Here are 15 tasks you can do this last week of December to help you return next year ready to hit the ground running!

1. Go through the pile(s) of papers you’ve been meaning to sort.
2. Set up a system to help your business go more paperless—we offer paper management and filing systems services for business.
3. Deep clean your desk or workspace—here are some tips to organize your desk.
4. Empty your email inbox—here’s one of our webinars to help clear your inbox.
5. Set your “out of office” for the day and work on 2013 strategic planning without interruption.
6. Write and send thank you notes to networking contacts, clients or strategic partners.
7. Attend a webinar to add to your skill set—here is a list of our upcoming webinars.
8. Update your LinkedIn profile.  Write recommendations for people or endorse their skills.
9. Go back and read industry newsletters or blogs you’ve been meaning to catch up on.
10. Go through the pens at your desk and toss the ones that have dried up.
11. Pre-write content for your blog or newsletter so you don’t have to do it later.
12. If you use a paper calendar/planner, set aside time to purchase your 2013 calendar and get it organized.
13. Read a book you’ve been meaning to read—here are some of our book recommendations!
14. Identify 3 repeatable tasks you can delegate to someone else and write the necessary instructions.  That’s three items off your list in the New Year!
15. Write down your individual goals for 2013 and set an appointment with yourself each month to track your progress.

Good luck during this last week of the year, and may you have a relaxing break for the holidays!

It’s beginning to feel a little quieter in Downtown Seattle.  You can tell people are starting to head out of town for the holidays and it will likely remain this quiet until the New Year.  It can be tempting to lose steam with so many people out of the office, but we can honestly say it’s one of our favorite times to be in the office.  Why?  Because it’s my most productive week of the year!

Below are a few tips to help you stay focused and productive during the last week of the year:

1.  Write it down – Make a list of all of the tasks that you’ve been meaning to get to, but have never become a top priority.  You know what we’re talking about - that pile of papers you’ve been meaning to go through, the thank you notes you keep putting off writing, the email inbox you keep hoping to organize, and the strategic planning you start working on but somehow you always manage to get interrupted.  Writing these tasks down helps you stay focused on accomplishing them.

2.  Team Up With a Coworker – If you need help finishing some projects this week, ask a coworker for their assistance.  Everyone is busy this time of year, but the work goes faster when everyone helps out.

3.  Limit Your Social Media – We all love our Twitter breaks, but it is disruptive and distracting to keep refreshing your feed.  Put your social media on hold until lunch breaks or after work.

4.  Set Specific Times To Check Your Email – Take down your pop-up notifications that announce each incoming email.  As strong as we all think we are, it’s hard to look at the subject of an email and not click to open it.  Pick a few times throughout the day to check-in on your inbox, rather than reacting to it the entire day.

5.  Break Down Monotonous Tasks – You might be procrastinating some tasks and projects because they seem long, tedious and boring.  Try breaking these tasks down into smaller blocks of time (30 minutes a day) and scheduling them for a time when your brain needs a little break anyways.  For instance, I prefer to save “mindless” tasks for late afternoon because it allows me to be productive during a not-so-productive hour of my day. Stay consistent and you’ll be done by the end of the week!