The year is winding down (quicker than many would like!) and with most businesses preparing for the holiday season, there is a good deal of stress in the air. If you’re anything like us, there is so much to get done before your company closes for the year, or your humans start heading off on leave, or your vendors shut down for the season and deliveries grind to a halt.
In the hustle and bustle of year-end, it can be easy to lose track of what makes this time of year so special – taking the time to spend with family and friends, and being able to fill your cup.
What Does It Mean To Fill Your Cup?
Some people like to think of it as recharging your batteries, or as replenishing or collecting your spoons, but at SOLID, we call it Filling Your Cup. It’s all about taking the time to do the things that you love, that boost your energy levels, that give your life purpose, and help you to connect to the work you do and the people around you in more meaningful ways.
What fills your cup will likely be different from the person next to you – it’s as unique as your personality. For some people, spending time with others gives them energy, while for others it’s about spending the time to connect to yourself. For some it will be partying, for others meditation, and for others still it may be hiking or reading or dancing in the rain. But there are some common factors that filling your cup will often involve, which is what this article is all about – looking at 5 ways that you can get energy back this festive season and come back in the new year refreshed and ready to take on the world.
Why Is Filling Cups Important For Businesses?
Before we dive into how you can fill your cup, I want to talk for a moment about why it’s important not just for you as an individual, but for your company as a whole. At Solid Systems, we encourage our humans to fill their cups at every opportunity that they get, and here’s why:
• Company Culture
Company culture is critical in this modern age where half of your teams may be working from one office, while others may be working from home or from an office halfway across the world. You want your humans to connect to your business, to the work that they do. You want to have a company culture that they can embrace and feel like a part of. And encouraging healthy habits like taking the time to regain energy in a way that brings joy to your humans’ lives will not only see them embracing a healthy work-life balance and connecting to their work, but connecting to the people that work with them as well. It opens up a channel for conversation and discussion, for sharing their lives and getting to know their colleagues on a more personal level. All of which contributes towards your company culture as a whole.
• Better Staff Retention
It goes without saying that encouraging your humans to do the things that they enjoy and that bring them energy will see them being happier in general. But on top of this, they will feel that your business appreciates them and their well-being, making them happier employees. And happier employees are less likely to want to look for work elsewhere. Giving your humans the time that they need to fill their cups, regain their energy, and do the things that they enjoy will see your employee satisfaction rising, increase your staff retention, and reducing costs to your company when it comes to hiring and training new talent.
• Increased Productivity
When your humans are feeling run down, tired and burned out, they may be sitting at their desks, but they’re going to struggle to concentrate on the work that they’re doing. Not only are happier humans more likely to stay with your business long-term, but when they feel energised, they work better as well. While encouraging your team members to fill their cups may feel like they’re taking time away from the work that they’re doing, they will come back refreshed and more ready to work efficiently, effectively, and more productively than before.
• Happier Clients
It’s not just your own business that is going to benefit from the renewed work ethic of your humans when they’re feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. Your clients are going to reap the rewards of their energy as well, increasing client satisfaction and improving your overall standing and reputation with them.
5 Ways To Fill Your Cup This Festive Season
Now that we’ve looked at why giving your humans the time to fill their cup is in fact not only good for their wellbeing, but for your business as well, let’s take a look at some ways that you and your teams can fill your cups over the festive season.
1. Spending Time With Friends And Family
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, or just the winding down of the year and the welcoming of a new one, December is a time of being surrounded by loved ones. While the stress of planning dinners and parties, hosting guests and managing family drama can certainly take its toll, try to take a few moments to remember what it’s all for. Soak in the joy of coming together with the people that mean the most to you, and live the moments that are going to be fond memories in the years to come.
2. Taking The Time To Do What You Love
The time off that you take during December is the perfect opportunity to do the things you love, no matter what that might be. While it can be tempting to just spend the days that you have off from planning lazing about on the couch, when you spend that time instead doing the things that really bring you joy, you’ll actually find yourself with more energy and enthusiasm than if you’d spent it simply sleeping in or resting.
3. Switching Off From Everything Work
The last thing that you want when taking time off is to constantly be worrying about what’s happening back at work. Even if you swear that you aren’t going to read the emails that come through to your phone, every buzz of a notification is going to put you on edge. This is why it’s important to turn off notifications from any work apps or email programs on your devices throughout your leave. Close your Teams, fight the urge to check Outlook, and be sure to turn your auto-responder on and let colleagues and acquaintances know that you’ll be out of touch throughout your leave, and when they can expect a response.
4. Surrounding Yourself With Nature
I’m not necessarily saying that you should go for a hike up Table Mountain. While I know that I would love that, I realise that not everyone would! But step away from technology and immerse yourself in nature. Take in the fresh air, even if it means setting up a picnic in your garden or just taking a walk around the block. It’s summer in South Africa, so soak up the sunlight – vitamin D can do a world of good for your mood as well as lowering blood pressure, and even helping you to work off the festive feasts. And if you happen to be on the other side of the world, where it’s winter instead, don’t let the cold stop you from also spending a bit of time outdoors. But do button up – the last thing you want is to catch a cold!
5. Staying Healthy And Active
So many people see the festive season as the perfect time to gorge themselves on great food, and laze on the couch watching terrible Christmas movies. They’ll wait until the new year to kick their exercise routine into high gear and work off the extra calories they’ve added on. Now, I’m not saying that you should hit the gym hard, but part of filling your cup and regaining your energy is likely to involve taking part in healthy habits. While becoming a couch potato may feel like you’re resting up, in reality it’s going to do little to build up your energy reserves. Try instead going for a walk in the botanical gardens (which ties nicely into surrounding yourself with nature), going swimming in the sea, playing sports or throwing a frisbee with your kids and your family, and adding some veggies and salad to your festive feast rather than only indulging in the turkey, gammon and crispy roast potatoes.
Does Filling Your Cup End When The Festive Season Does?
While the festive season is a great time to fill your cup, since so many businesses are closing and it can be difficult to get work done in any event, that doesn’t mean that December should be the only time that you allow yourself and the humans within your business the time that they need to recharge.
You should be encouraging yourself, your loved ones and your teams to fill their cups at every opportunity, even if it means taking half an hour every morning to do something small that brings joy, or letting your humans skip the traffic jams, work from home, and spend the time that they would have been in the car doing something that they enjoy instead.
Where Does Solid Systems Come Into The Picture?
We believe that technology is a tool for connection. It’s about more than just helping you to do more work – it’s the fact that it helps you to work smarter, rather than harder, giving you more time back to do what you love with the people who mean the most to you.
When you’re able to tick off all the tasks on your to-do list before 4pm, because you’ve been using Artificial Intelligence platforms to automate some of your activities, or because Teams has already transcribed that meeting that you sat in and sent through the highlights of the discussion, so there’s no need for you to go through your notes and write them down or put them into Planner or Microsoft To-Do, then that’s an extra hour of the day that’s been given back to you.
If you don’t have to worry about sifting through version after version of a file to find the latest one, or taking the time to manually select the documents that you want to back up and painstakingly selecting each one, because you’re using SharePoint for automatic cloud backup of your folders and file management, it’s time saved. It may feel like just seconds, but in reality, those seconds add up over the course of a day.
There are hundreds if not thousands of small ways that technology gives us time back, especially when you find ones that integrate into the way that you already work and don’t take a good deal of learning to get used to. And at Solid Systems, we’re all about finding those technologies for your business – the ones that are going to help your humans to connect to each other, connect to their work, and connect to their own lives in more meaningful ways.
If you are looking for a technology partner or Managed IT company who cares about the humans behind your business and wants to see them doing more, being more and making more with the power of technology, then you’ve come to the right place. Schedule a free IT consultation with our Sales team, and let’s have a chat about your company’s unique needs and goals, and find the technologies that are going to help you meet and exceed them.
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