The Exhausted Corporate Goddess' Guide To The Christmas Season

It’s nearing the end of the year and it’s been a tough one. You have so many balls in the air the idea of the social season exhausts you. Just even thinking about the idea of having to go to a number of social functions leaves you so tired you could nearly weep.

So, how to handle it?

Batch tasks.
Give yourself more time for tasks than you actually need – you will need plenty of buffer time at this time of year.
Delegate as if your life depends on it. If you are a complete control freak as most Corporate Goddesses are, now is the time to find your inner delegation queen. Do it before you have a chance to talk yourself out of that.
Block book the babysitter, delegate as many projects that are time heavy to junior members of your team as you can, ask the cleaners to do extra hours find your girl/boy Friday for groceries, do you whatever you need to do now to get as much free time as you possibly can for yourself.
Buy as much of what you need online as you early as you can.
Re-schedule projects that are not urgent to the New Year but spread it out – don’t leave yourself with a hellish January.
Conserve your energy like you are conserving a precious commodity. There is not an infinite supply and there is nothing more hellish then facing into social events absolutely exhausted.
Schedule your downtime like an appointment – a free morning here or evening there just to relax and ideally sleep – be realistic but treat yourself as you would a client and get into the habit of sticking to these appointments as best you can.
On saying that drop the guilt – you are just going to be extra busy this time of year.
If you get unexpected downtime jealously guard it – if a client cancels and you can manage to leave work early – get going before something else crops up.
Negotiate sleep ins wherever you can – sleep is the holy grail and magic medicine for this time of year.
Try having a few dry social events – meet friends for afternoon tea or Sunday brunch. Network at work events, chat to who you need to chat to and then leave as early as is appropriate so you can have some relaxing down time.
Most importantly, learn to say no – there will be some events you really want to go to and some you really have to go to but for everything in between just say no.
Keep healthy, eat well. Now is the time to stock up on vitamin c a good multi vitamin and Echinacea.
Unless you want to end up in a pool of puddle of tears, crying out of sheer exhaustion or having a screaming match with someone just because you are too exhausted to stop yourself do this.