There is NOTHING like the feeling of the start of a holiday week, right? Whether you’re working or taking time off this week, it’s a time when it feels like more oxygen is getting into the lungs.

This is a great week to take care of tasks that don’t get attention during normal weeks. Perhaps you can devote time to getting more organized? (Oh great, cleaning my sock drawer…how fun.)

Hey, don’t poo-poo being organized, it’s as essential as the other 3,419 things you have to be good at to succeed in sales.

The TOP 10% don’t operate in the margins. When they’re at work, they’re fully dedicated to work. And when it’s time to play, they don’t work.

That said, holiday weeks are unique when you can throttle it back and still be productive. After subtracting holidays, vacations, weekends, and a few sick days here and there, you’re left with approximately 227 calendar days to make your number. When times are good, you wish there were more days in the year. When times are not so good, you wish you had more days to make up ground.

One might say time is the ultimate "frenemy."

So while it’s fun that time is slowing down a bit this week, don’t lapse into losing an entire week of unproductivity. If you’re taking two days off and working three…work those three days with purpose. If you’re taking three days off and working two…work those two days with purpose.

Don’t feel guilty for starting an hour later each day or knocking off an hour earlier each night this week; work as hard and smart as you do if this were any other week.

Take the slow time to do tasks that qualify as the little things. Little things add up over time; think of time this week as a friend.

"Messy desktop, messy brain" is a saying sometimes heard at work…mostly from snarky managers. (But it’s kinda true.)

It’s a good thing to clean up occasionally, eh? Today, go on a cleaning binge. Clean up your laptop and your workspace, too.

Put docs into their rightful folders. Re-title docs and folders so you actually know what’s in ’em. And for sure, load up the pickup and head to the dump: throw out all those old docs collecting dust.

Becoming better organized is cathartic and can provide enhanced clarity. You’ll take a little more clarity and focus heading into the Q4 push, right?

You weren’t thinking of coasting this week, were ya?? Good. ‘Cuz holiday weeks invite various opportunities that don’t exist during non-holiday weeks. This week, you might be able to do some thinking.

Certainly, getting more organized is a good slow-week assignment, but it shouldn’t stop there.

Here are three ideas that might make a difference between this week being a good week versus a wow, what I great week that was.

1. Call clients. Yup, pick up the phone. Not every one of your prospects and clients is off this week. Give spontaneity a chance to be rewarded: challenge yourself to get a meeting this week with a customer. Try this, "Hey, maybe you’re not 110% booked this week like other weeks…wanna meet Thursday at 2p to discuss blah blah?"

2. Socialize with a client this week. Take #1 and replace "meeting" with "lunch" or "drink."

3. Think. Pick something on your list requiring substantive strategic thinking, and then…think! Try this: review your Q3 strategic account plans and grab members of your enablement team who can meet… and have at it. Think. (And talk, too. Sitting silently together in a room or Zoom while thinking by yourselves would be awkward.) The subtle slowness of the week may illicit more space for ideas and revelations that could unlock some challenges on your stickier challenges.