For many businesses, including a writing business, the time between Christmas and New Year is a time to clear out the old and get ready for the new. With that in mind, here are three tips on how to make the most of the mid-holiday lull.

Have a paper chase

Even though the 21st century is very much the digital age, paper does seem to accumulate in workplaces, especially offices. The post-holiday lull is an ideal time to find it, corral it, and deal with it. In many cases, it can just be tossed into the recycling. In some cases, however, it will need a bit more attention.

Before you recycle any paperwork, it’s worth double-checking to see if there’s anything on it that might need to be kept. If there is, then often all you need to do is take a photo of it on your phone and/or scan it. You should also make sure that there’s nothing sensitive on it before you get rid of it.

The days of digital banks have thankfully reduced the amount of finance-related paperwork which is created automatically. Even so, people can print out financial and/or legal paperwork for various reasons. They can also print out paperwork with people’s personal details on it. Anything of this nature should be properly shredded before it’s recycled.

Purge your digital files

Digitization has eliminated a lot of the paper clutter which used to be a fact of life in many workplaces. In many cases, however, that clutter just migrates to a digital format. This is actually still a significant benefit since it often saves a lot of space (and mess). The problem is that it can easily leave you with a vast mound of digital clutter.

In principle, digital clutter should not contain any sensitive information. Even small businesses should have robust protocols in place to ensure that this kind of data is kept appropriately protected.  

It can, however, and often does still contain useful information people want to keep, at least for a while. That’s why people are often unwilling just to mass-delete their old files. The mid-holiday lull is often a great time to go through your digital clutter and get it under control (for another year).

Update your email settings

Even though businesses now have all kinds of communication tools at their disposal, email is often the main one. In fact, for many small businesses, it’s now effectively impossible to use email without the help of inbox-management tools. If it is possible, it’s extremely difficult.

While these tools are useful, they’re unlikely to be “set-and-forget”. For example, you may set a filter to ensure that a specific person’s emails are always sent to your inbox. If, however, that person changes jobs, their emails may cease to be a top priority. You, therefore, need to update your filters to reflect this.

It’s also generally a good idea to look at your system for storing emails. These days labels/categories tend to be a much more effective approach than folders. As with filters, however, they’re not set-and-forget. The mid-holiday lull is a great time to see which ones are still relevant and which need to be updated or even deleted.