Christmas is upon us, which for many people means a rush of family, friends, traditions, the sounds and smells of the holiday and most importantly… a bit of a break from work.

It’s not unusual for companies to go quiet from Christmas Day to New Years Day, a week where those of us who are workaholics have a small chance to catch up a bit on their workload and try to get organized for the new year.  To that end – we at Appency wanted to offer a few tips:

1. Sit down to your computer…. and turn off your internet.

GASP! Did he say turn off your internet?? Absolutely. Even if only for a day. (Preferably away from your home) – try a coffee shop, the local library… a place where you are not so easily distracted by family or everyday responsibilities. You know how much work you get done on the airplane when you can sit down and reply to, and file those emails without the hassle of the recipient’s immediate reply?  Pulling the plug on the word-wide web (aka world’s best time waster) can help replicate that environment. Now you can reply to emails, organize files and more without the distractions of replies and Facebook.

2. Organize your contacts

Most smartphones, and as of recently the iPhone, have business card recognition software such as WorldCard Mobile. (iPhone version at  http://bit.ly/wcmdl1 and I believe its currently on sale) I believe WorldCard is even pre-installed on many windows mobile devices.  Pull the stack of business cards out of your desk, and start snapping photos. You would be surprised at how quick this can be! When you’re done, sync up your iPhone contacts with Outlook (or whatever you use) to have it all populate in your main address book. A quick Google search can explain how to do this.

3. Socialize Your Contacts

As business people, we use LinkedIn as our social network for the work environment. Thankfully, LinkedIn (and many social networks) make it easy to import contacts once you have imported them as per above. For LinkedIn – check out this link http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=pop_ex_upload_contacts for a quick explanation of how to import all those contacts you have just uploaded as connections. Remember – the more people you are connected to on LinkedIn, the better network access you have to THEIR network as well. The invite to connect on LinkedIn is also a reminder to the contact of your meeting and may bring up a potential piece of business.

Three steps. Its probably one days worth of work, barring the occasional coffee break and trip to the powder room. An organized email box and set of connections is a great way to start off your 2010 business life!