Three ways to make your time in the office count during holiday season

Being at work during the holiday season can feel pointless and frustrating if you’re the only one trying to keep things on track.

In the midst of the summer doldrums, how can you stay motivated and actually make your time at the office count? Here are three strategies to keep in mind:

1. Embrace "deep work": With professionals sending and receiving an average of 122 emails per day, it can be hard to carve out the space to work on meaningful, long-term tasks, or "deep work". But when everyone else is on vacation, the level of messages drops dramatically. That gives you more freedom to schedule uninterrupted blocks of time to tackle important projects you've been putting off.

2. Clean up minor tasks: Devote a day or two to clean up minor tasks that have been impeding your productivity throughout the year. Perhaps it's cleaning off your desk, writing a recommendation letter for your former intern or updating your LinkedIn profile.

3. Build your network: Networking is another task that many people consider important, but it gets short shrift when work heats up. When many of your colleagues are out of the office, however, it may be the perfect time to reach out to other colleagues, inside or outside your organisation.

– Copyright Harvard Business Reviews 2016