#154 The 5 Most Effective Strategies to Ensure You Log Off And are Fully Present Over The Holidays

Lucy Gernon (00:00.974)
Hello there, lovely lady, and welcome back to another episode of the 360 Leadership Podcast. I am your host, Lucy Gernon, here for our very first episode of December. I’m so excited for Christmas. I’m recording this in November, but I’m already excited for Christmas. I’ve got lots of my Christmas shopping done. So I hope you are getting yourself organized. And if you’re not, this is your message from the universe to get the shopping done, because I always like to get everything out of the way.

before the madness happens. So anyway, today on the show, I’m excited to do a topic that is gonna hopefully be super helpful for you, which is five tips to support you to log off on time and be present over the festive season with your family. And I have some notes here, but just before I get into today’s episode of the show, can you do me a little favor if you haven’t already and be sure to subscribe and rate and review the show.

I cannot tell you how much it helps my small business when you do that. All you’ve literally got to do is if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple, literally just click the follow the follow button because it tells the platforms that you enjoy the content. And then you will never miss an episode. We have some really juicy ones coming up later in December and into January and February 2025. my God. Can you believe we’re talking about that already? So please do that for me. And if you could spread the word as well about the show, I would be ever so grateful. So

Back up a little bit back to what we’re going to talk about today, which is all about you enjoying the buildup for the festive season. So as an executive coach, while I help women to be more strategic, I help you be more effective leaders, my motivation is not for the organizations. Sorry companies, it’s not. But my motivation is because I truly believe that every single ambitious, successful woman deserves to enjoy the fruits of her labor.

There is no point in just working all of the time, giving work the best of you and then crashing at Christmas time. No, no, no, no. We don’t want that. So today I’m going to be sharing three tips with you that will help you to log off with less stress. OK. And then two tips at the end, which are really powerful about how you can actually be more present. So we’re going to be covering some juicy ones. Some of these you may know, which is amazing. Just do them.

Lucy Gernon (02:28.534)
OK, this is your message to do them. So I remember back when I worked in the corporate world, I always did this. I am highly strategic person by nature and I’m always thinking ahead. And so at the start of December, there’s a few things that I always did and continue to do even even before December to ensure that I can enjoy Christmas week. mean, that’s always my goal. I don’t want to be closing out things.

I don’t want to be thinking about work. I want to be getting in family mode that Friday before Christmas. So the first tip I’m going to give you that I really invite you to pay attention to. And if you’re multitasking, come back to me. The first tip is to clarify the tangible results or goals for you and your team. So what do I mean by that? I often see women and men

scrambling to get as much done as they possibly can before they log off for Christmas. So it’s like we’ve got all of these, you know, metrics to hit. Hopefully by December, you’re almost there. You’re nearly there. But then you’ve all these continuous improvement initiatives that you want to get over the line and you want to get everything closed off so you can come back in 2025 with no to do list. And to me, that’s a big mistake because you never get to the end of your to do list. And that is a recipe for absolutely not allowing yourself

to enjoy the festive season, to build up because guys, like we only get one life and Christmas for me is a super special time. I hope it is for you too and if it’s not, that’s cool. You might have other holidays that are more appropriate for you but I’m talking to the people right now who really celebrate Christmas and enjoy that family season and friendship season that it is. Like I have a vision of you going out and you know, if you’re in Ireland, going to the wild lights in Dublin with your kids or

going to a Santa train or meeting up with old school friends for drinks. And when you meet up with them, you want to be energized. You want to be feeling good. So the one thing that you must do is clarify what absolutely are the tangible results you’re trying to create. So is, and when I say tangible, I talk with this a lot. It’s not like I want to get through all my emails. That’s not really a tangible what it is, but it may not be a good use of your time. So are you looking to

Lucy Gernon (04:54.222)
I don’t know, get a new client over the line and get a contract signed. That will be a very tangible, specific result, which will be directly linked to your company’s revenue, which will be a good place to start because we’re always there for revenue building and revenue generating activities. Or maybe it’s something like we want to get, we want to have, we want to come back in January 2025 where we have no overdue, fit in the blank reports.

That is a tangible result, but is it realistic? Is it actually something that’s gonna move the needle in the business or is it just mental clutter that you is a nice to have? So you get to decide what they are, but I would really invite you to focus on three to five big goals that you wanna get done before Christmas because then at least you can log off feeling accomplished. The second thing then is to focus on what must be done only. So when you identify what must I do and what could I do,

Right. And then it’s time for you to be disciplined. And it’s all about that self leadership and making a conscious decision that you are not going to react to the noise around you, that you are not going to be jumping through hoops, that you are going to be collaborative. Absolutely. Which we’re going to get to in a second, but that you’re going to get strategic and you’re going to get clear. And then that’s it. Right. You’re going to lock your plan in place and you are going to focus on those things.

And anything else that comes up in the meantime, you get to decide, of course, if it’s business critical. But if you’re being strategic enough, which is what I always talk about, you’re already going to have thought about what could happen. So you need to be thinking about, right, well, say, for example, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry. There was constantly deviations. So any time I was ever making any sort of plan for my time, I always factored in about 20 percent for unknowns, at least because they’re going to come up.

So one of your priorities has to be solving the fires that are going to inevitably come because maybe you hadn’t anticipated them. All right. And then delegate the rest are packets. So I remember having a client at Christmas one time and she was like, yeah, I really just want to get this project closed. And I was like, well, when’s it due? And she said, well, it’s no real due date. It’s just something I’d like to do. But she had all of this other kind of needle moving stuff for the business that she should have been focusing on. And she did. And then, you know, she she kind of took the pressure off, I guess.

Lucy Gernon (07:17.1)
And I suppose the reason I think this way is because you will never get to the end of your to-do list and you’re just going to log off feeling defeated if you try and conquer every single thing. So just get smart and learn to just try and make a powerful decision that you’re going to protect your own energy in the buildup to Christmas. So you’re going to still have people around you who are going to be stressed, who are going to be trying to put pressure on you.

And I like to always imagine I’ve got this like protective bubble of positive energy around me and I decide who I let in. Anyone else, if you’re brain stress my way, I will keep my distance. I imagine it’s like a foot around me. And it really, really helps because when you when you make a conscious decision and you just get intentional about your own energy management, it’s going to be super, super helpful. Just allow yourself to enjoy December. Right. Just don’t buy into the crap.

And then the third tip in this so that you can log off on time with less stress in the buildup to the festive season is to pull, pull, pull. What do I mean by that? When I did that article with Forbes earlier on this year, they were asking me around, know, can women really reach the C-suite? Can they women really become executives and still set boundaries? I was like, yeah, of course you can.

But a big mistake a lot of women make is we wait to be voluntold for these things. We say yes to everything. We don’t set boundaries. And there’s loads of work. That’s a lot of the work I do with women in 360 Leaders Club, which is to focus on all of that stuff so you can be more strategic, reach your potential. And of course, if you want to join us, we will be looking at our 2025 members right now. So you can just head over to 360LeadersClub.com forward slash apply.

Submit your application and we will review it and see if you qualify. If you do, we will reach out to you. We will have a call to make sure it’s a good fit. So now is a really, really good time actually, if you’re thinking about joining us to go over and submit an application. But one thing I talk about all of the time and it was the same when I wrote in that Forbes article was about what I apply, what I call the two steps ahead rule. So what’s the two steps ahead rule? And if you’re multitasking, come on back to me.

Lucy Gernon (09:43.138)
The two steps ahead rule is a strategic rule, which means you are constantly two steps ahead of where you are right now. So it means if you know in the back of your mind there’s a certain project that’s due for closure and it needs your sign off, okay? And you haven’t heard anything about it in a while and you’re making assumptions or they’ll come to me or maybe they’ve forgotten about it. No, no, no. You’ve got to make a list of all those little bits that are at.

niggling at you with the back of your brain and be proactive and reach out to those stakeholders with your availability. So it’s about being two steps ahead, anticipating what may go wrong, thinking about the obstacles that might get in your way, thinking about who might need you. And when you do that and you have a list of those things, then it’s about strategically putting mitigations in place so that you’re in control of your time. All right. It’s so powerful.

And most people don’t do it. They get swept up in the whirlwind of work that’s coming your way. So when you do that, you are going to be reaching out to these people. You’re going to be trying to pull work in. You’re going to be telling them as well, like, look, I’m not available. I’m finishing for Christmas on the 19th of December. I used to always tell people I was finishing two or three days earlier than I was because I was allowing that buffer time the last two, three days for the stuff that would inevitably come.

and to do other stuff which I’m going to be talking to you about in next week’s episode, I think it is, which is end of year reflections. Love doing that as well. So make sure you tune in for the next couple of episodes. And if you just apply that two steps ahead rule, I promise you things are going to be so much easier. All right. So tip number four then. So now we’ve kind of we’ve covered the first three tips around getting in control of your workload and anticipating everything. Now we’re going to look at, well, how can I actually be present at Christmas?

How can I actually log off and enjoy myself with feeling accomplished as opposed to, you know, beating myself up for not getting this thing over the line, et cetera, et There’s one exercise that I love to do and I’m actually going to talk to you about it now is to reflect on your achievements. So as a positive psychology coach, I’m an executive coach, but I have a positive psychology certification as well.

Lucy Gernon (12:06.174)
And positive psychology is all about focusing on what’s going well, what’s working, as opposed to always trying to fix everything that’s wrong. How often do you actually sit and reflect on your achievements? December is a fantastic time to do this. I know you’ll have done your end of year review achievements, which is a great place to start. If you’ve done those just the week before Christmas, read them.

Read them in a meaningful way, not just in a way of submitting them to get them over the line in your performance management system, but allow yourself to receive the words that you’ve written about your performance and then dig deeper even into that and think about your personal achievements. Like what have you overcome in 2024 personally? What mindset shifts did you have to go through?

What personal challenges have you overcome amid delivering all this amazing stuff for your organization? I know you’ve had personal challenges. If you’re anything like me, 2024 has been, I am not joking with you, the most personally challenging year of my life. There has been so much going on. I will probably write a book one day, but I’m really proud of everything I’ve achieved in my business in 2024. And I want you to be proud of everything that you’ve achieved as well, because it’s not easy.

being a woman in leadership. It’s not easy to lead a team, to have clients, to have customers, to have a family to take care of, whether that’s elderly parents, siblings, children. It’s not easy to try and look after your health and make sure everybody is fed and that the bills are paid and that the car gets serviced and your child has the dental appointment and then, you know, your team members promotion and that performance management issue. Like, are you joking me?

We handle so much as women. So please allow yourself to just pause and enjoy what you’ve done. And then the fifth tip I would give you, which is a very, important one, is to, before you leave in December, is to set your January priorities and ensure you align with your team so that they know their priorities for when they come back.

Lucy Gernon (14:29.226)
And then you can log off knowing that there’s a plan. Don’t close off the year with just a couple of meetings in the calendar and no kind of priority list for the day you go back, because you can be guaranteed you will be there over Christmas just before you’re logging off going, my God, what am I going back to? How do I even start the year off? Do yourself a favor and even have directional priorities, because what that’s going to do in your mind is when those thoughts pop in around, what am I going back to? Did I forget this?

You’re going to have had you going to have it all written out in your diary ready for you to go. So that’s something I think that’s really, really, really, important. And, you know, January is a really good time as well to start thinking, you know, it tends to be a bit slow the first couple of months, first couple of weeks in January. It’s a really, really good time for one of your priorities to be to focus on your own professional development. Something I hear all of the time.

from the women I work with in 360 Leaders Club is they come to me because they want to focus on their professional and personal development. And usually when they start working with me, they start thinking about, actually, do you know what? There’s this course I’ve wanted to do forever in my industry. I want to keep up to date. And it’s only when they come to the coaching calls and we pause and we start thinking about,

your vision as a leader and we start thinking about your team and where you’re going and how you’re going to lead them and all the exciting things that you’re going to achieve together. Please don’t forget your own professional development. So if you’re not sure exactly on if you’re going to be hitting the ground ground running, you might have travel booked. Just make sure that you have some priorities and make sure professional development is on it. OK, because January is a fantastic time to begin to actually look at stuff.

And of course, if you want to work with me, as always, you can submit your application to 360leadersclub.com forward slash apply and we’ll see if you qualify. So that is it for this week’s episode of the show. I hope you found the tips valuable. I’ll do a super quick recap before we head off. The first one is to clarify the tangible results or goals for you and your team that you want to create in December before you log off.

Lucy Gernon (16:43.51)
Make them smart. Number two, once you’ve got that list done, which should include some sort of a buffer for unexpected, focus on what must be done only and park or delegate the rest. Allow yourself to enjoy the build up. Just don’t get swept up in all the stress and, you know, remember your positivity energy bubble around you. Number three is to pull, pull, pull. Use the two steps ahead rule. Think about who may need you and pull the information.

Get those timelines pulled in if you can so that everybody is not stressed in the week before you log off. Number four, the week before you log off, make sure you reflect on your achievements, both professional and personal, so that you have this sense of accomplishment as you finish up 2024. And number five, be sure before you leave to set your priorities and your team’s priorities for January.

have some sort of a direction on what you’re coming back to, some sort of a priorities list and make sure that your professional development is on that list. So that’s it for this week’s episode of the show. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did enjoy it, you really should make sure that you are subscribed to my newsletter. I don’t talk about enough on the podcast, but we do a fantastic newsletter every single Sunday called the 360 Sunday Night Newsletter.

where we give you three mantras for the week ahead. We give you six thoughts or tools and one thing to give zero energy about. And the feedback from the newsletter is always fantastic. It’s really about us helping you get rid of the Sunday night scaries. So if you enjoyed the podcast, simply head over to lucygarden.com forward slash newsletter. You can sign up for free. You get that.

you’ll get notified of new podcast episodes as well. So you never miss anything and any offers or anything like that will always go to my email list first. So if you’re a podcast fan, come on over to my email list, lucygarden.com forward slash newsletter. And like I said, if you’re thinking about your professional development for 2025 and if you want to be more strategic, if you want to have better work life balance, if you want more confidence in your role, if you want to be a better communicator, a more effective leader,

Lucy Gernon (18:59.938)
That’s exactly what we do in 360Liters Club. So simply submit your application to 360LitersClub.com forward slash apply. And if you’re thinking, I’m not really sure if it’s right for me or what I hear a lot actually is I feel like the women that are in there are so much more accomplished than I am. And is it really the right fit? And you know, will I be up to the mark? Just submit your application, please. We’re all so normal, so lovely. There’s women in there from senior manager all the way up.

to executive level. We’ve got a very diverse group. We have a couple of different groups so that you’re with more peer curated groups as well, while still having an opportunity to speak to everybody if you want to in our private community. If you have goals or in confidence, balance, increase your leadership effectiveness, executive presence, it is the place to be. We’ve got to like have a bit of fun and you’ve got to want to have it all. All right. So if that sounds like you, know where to go.

So that is it for this week’s episode of the show. I’ll see you again next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.