Hands up, who’s got the holiday blues? If you’re finding it difficult to get back in to work after the holiday season here are 10 great tips to help get your mojo back.

1. Have a good breakfast. The most important meal of the day.
2. If you work from home build in a ‘commute’. Maybe walking to the local coffee shop or out to grab a paper. It will make a clear division between your home and your work day.
3. Manage distractions. Mute your phone, turn off email so you can concentrate fully on the task at hand.
4. When tackling your inbox, go through your emails as they have appeared in your inbox and deal with them systematically.
   • if it can be dealt with now, do it;
   • if it needs further action, defer to your action list;
   • if you don’t need it, delete it;
   • if you need to keep it for reference, file it.
5. Procrastinating? Turn off all distractions. Grab a stopwatch and set it for 15 minutes. In those 15 minutes concentrate solely on your specified task and see how far you get. Chances are you’ll be in the swing of it after 15 minutes and can continue until it’s done.
6. For every 90 minutes of work you complete take a 15 break to recharge. Come on, you deserve a break!
7. Batch up your tasks. Allocate specific time slots to work on admin. For example 1 hour on emails,  45 minutes for phone calls, 1.5 for accounts and so on. You’ll be surprised how much gets done and that will boost your motivation.
8. Be realistic. If you’ve got 20 items on your task list and expect to get them done in a day you are probably going to be disappointed. Divide your tasks into priority order and aim for 3 – 4 chunky tasks. You’ll feel great once they’re done and you’re moving on to the 5th.
9. Big, overwhelming projects can languish on your task list being avoided. Break these down into smaller, more manageable pieces.
10. If you really don’t want to do something or haven’t got the time, outsource it. That’s what book-keepers, Virtual PAs and copywriters are for.

Got any good tips to add? What helps to get you motivated after a holiday?