Welcome Wednesday: Time to Relax & Recharge? Or, Work in Peace & Quiet?

[#1]

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

In North America, the week between Christmas and New Year's is usually the time that most people take vacation. In years gone by, my wife and I would usually elect to work through this week as it was a great time fir heads down work on those tasks that always got stuck on the back burner, then we would take more time off when the weather was nicer outside (Canadian winters can be very cold). Now that we have kids, we have been taking time off between Christmas and New Year's to spend as a family.

My question for you this week (assuming people are still checking in with the Atlassian community) is: Do you take this time to relax and recharge for the start of the new year? Or do you work through this time with less interruptions and distractions? If you are taking time off, I'd love to hear about your plans.

Let me know in the comments below!

Have a great rest of the week!

[Samie Kaufman - Your Gal at Gliffy]

In the past I've taken this week to set up my planner for the new year, only to stop using that planner around February!

This year, I'm trying to do a mix of year-in-review style projects like a recap of major product feedback themes, administrative tasks like cleaning up my Jira Product Discover board and setting new filters/rules in my inbox to get some junk weeded out, and personal tasks like scheduling my dentist appointments. It's nice to have a week with very few meetings and requests to respond to for this stuff. :)

[Barbara Szczesniak]

My company had Monday and Tuesday as holidays, and I took an extra day on Wednesday. I was going to take the entire week, but the flu last month took most of my PTO time. 

I'm using my 2 working days to work with less distractions and interruptions -- no meetings scheduled this week! First I have to go through the emails I have gotten and remember where I left off last Friday. Maybe I will clean out my email Inbox and then get back to writing in Confluence. It's only 2 days and then another holiday next Monday.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Christian Steele]

Time to rest up and get ready for all of the exiting things to come in 2024 - Happy New Year All!

[Amanda Barber]

I have been off for the past week. My company actually shuts down for the week which is amazing. I did do some checking of emails and a small bit of work whenever I felt like it, but it's always a nice break with no work-FOMO. I tend to be a terrible PTO-taker, so I really appreciate the 2 weeks each year my company shuts down!

[Andy Gladstone]

Due to my religious background I generally work on the Christmas and New Year's Day to pay back all of the team members that provided coverage during the Jewish holidays when I was not available, They are generally slower days and I have used both to catch up on some of the annual reporting projects that give the teams insight into the productivity of the past year and understand the goals that have been set for the coming year. These past two Mondays have been instrumental in setting up the goals and plans for 2024.

[Rebekka Heilmann _viadee_]

I actually managed to tick off all urgent/important tasks just before christmas - with one project ending that was fairly easy.

I took the days off to get some work done around the house but ended up not doing that much. What I did manage was finally getting a rough idea for my vacation for 2024 so excited for that. Using this week, which is still slow here, to line up important dates at work and finalize the time slots for the vacation :)

Also: spent some time in the Atlassian communities ;) 

[Paul MacLeod]

Its similar here in UK, but in recent years I've started using it as time to enjoy no emails or Teams messages coming through and get on with some of my "nice to have" tasks that operational issues have prevented.

[Sam Nadarajan]

When I first started in my career I always looked forward to taking the time off between the holidays - now I want to work during those days for the reasons everyone else has mentioned - it's quiet!! Never thought I'd reach that point!

[Dave Liao]

@Jimmy Seddon - I love working during a quiet period - less interruptions and distractions means I can get into a flow state, which in itself is quite relaxing.

And naturally, I have slightly longer coffee breaks prior to a new year. 🙃☕️