‘Tis the season for eggnog, cookies, lots of food, and relaxation with friends and family.  Most people stop working, stop blogging, and stop business work all together.  Now, while it’s important to enjoy the holidays I also think that the holidays are a great time to plan for 2011 and get ahead of the competition.  Think about it, everyone is relaxing so with just a bit of minimal work you can start to get ahead for the next year.  Here are a few things that I think we can all do during the holidays to get ready for 2011.

  • Educate yourself on things that are relevant to your business, perhaps a new but relevant topic you are not that familiar with, maybe you came across a new whitepaper or piece of research that you haven’t had time to read yet.  Whatever it is, spend this time educating yourself.
  • Don’t stop blogging just because everyone else stopped blogging, you don’t need to write as often but I’d still recommend getting a few posts out there because chances are you’re going to be one of the few people out there that are still writing.
  • Start planning which conferences you want to attend for 2011, make a list of the key contacts and email them when the new year starts (if you want to speak or attend as a press/analyst).
  • Go over your technology and marketing toolset for the next year, what are you going to be using for your business?  Breakdown the costs and evaluate what you need/don’t need.
  • Consider your branding and messaging, look at your site again, does everything make sense?  Do you need to make any tweaks or changes?  Make a list of these things so you can get them moving ASAP when the new year starts.
  • Put together your general task and to-do list of things that you need to get done when the new year starts (but things that you can’t do on your own yet due to the holidays), perhaps you need to work with your designer on a new email marketing template.
  • Look at your content creation calendar for 2011, what are you planning to do?  Do you want to do a whitepaper or webinar every month in 2011?  Start thinking about what you’re going to be doing in this area and jot down your ideas.
  • Keep building the relationships over the holidays, send out holiday cards, thank your clients, your partners, and your friends, make sure that when 2011 starts you are top of mind for everyone that knows who you are.
  • Eat, eat, eat, sleep, eat, eat, sleep, sleep, sleep, go outside, eat, watch a movie, eat, and then eat a little bit more

The biggest thing for me out of this list is the education, I’ve stocked up on books that I’m planning on reading.  What about you?  Do you have any tips for staying productive during the holidays?  What else can you do during the down time?

Happy holidays everyone!

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