The summer holidays are a period when many offices slow down, and workers take the bulk of their vacation. However, with September nipping at our heels, and yearend is just around the corner, here are some tips to get back into the swing of things as the last quarter of 2018 approaches.

Over the past few weeks, many of us have either been holidays, or not much has been happening at work, since many of our team members have (themselves) been on holidays. However, with the first full week of September to start next week, the summer slowdown is almost at an end, with offices (and schools) revving up to full throttle over the next week or so. In order to move the summer holiday malaise, here are four things you can do to get yourself ready to take on the world.

1. Catch up in what you’ve missed

In being on vacation, or just plain lazy during the dog days of summer, it is easy to not be as on the ball as you normally would be. As a result, you might not be as aware of the latest news and developments in your industry. To help you change gears from leisure to work, spend some time catching up on matters you might have missed. In the ICT/tech space, our weekly news roundup of Caribbean tech news is a useful resource, as it collates the developments of the past week into a single post which is published on Mondays.

2. ‘Spring clean’ your technology

As you transition from a mindset of play to work, do spend some time ensuring that your devices, such as your laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc., are also getting ready for the demands you will be making of them. Some of the tasks you could consider doing include:

  • Backing up the content stored on your devices to a second location. This is an activity that many of us do not do frequently enough, but experience the consequence when we our device crashes and we have to format hard drive or do a factory reset, or it gets stolen.
  • Thinning down the applications on our devices. Question: do you actually use all of the apps that you have on your devices? Typically, the short answer is no. Hence, there might be scope to free up space on your device, which may also help your device to work more efficiently.
  • Reviewing your passwords. These days, you almost cannot be too careful with respect to safeguarding your personal data. However, one of the simplest but overlooked things you can do is to review the passwords you are using. All too often, the passwords we use are too simple, and are being used multiple times, all of which leaves our devices, and personal information, vulnerable to attack and theft.
  • Thinning your cloud/backup storage. Frequently, many of our devices allows user-generated content, such as the files, images and videos we capture or download to be backed up to the cloud. However, if you were to check that storage, you tend to find lots of useless material that is eating into the finite amount of space you have been allocated. It is thus useful, from time to time, to access that space and review all that is stored there.

3.  Set some targets

With December 2018 fast approaching, you have just about four months to achieve the goals you had set at the beginning of the year. For organisations that have the end of the financial year in any of the months between December and June, the last quarter of the calendar year is frequently considered a ‘make-or-break’ quarter, as you compare your (or your team’s) performance against the initially set goals.

Hence, in addition to setting some targets towards what might be your final goals, it is also crucial to track your progress. Over the years, we have recommended several applications that can be used, but in a pinch, an spreadsheet, or even pen and paper could work.

4.  Get organised

Finally, in getting more organised you can become not only more accountable on how you spend your time, but also more productive. Ultimately, you ought to be giving the greatest priority – and your attention – to the tasks you consider the most important. However, all too often, we fill our time with ‘busy work’: activities that take a lot of time, but are not necessarily crucial, or help us achieve the big goals that have been set. Once again, we have recommended several applications that can be used, but most critically, you need to be committed to getting the job done.

Image credit:  skeeze (Pixabay)