To the delight of workers and the despair of managers, counting only national holidays, the year 2015 will have 10 holidays that fall on days close to the weekends. In some states, this number can reach 12, if we count local holidays. In Brazilian culture, when a holiday falls on a Friday or Monday, many people “extend” the holiday, which can hinder the increasing productivity overall for companies, as it considerably reduces the number of working days per year.

To prevent this from being a problem in your company, invest in increasing productivity on other days so that strategic actions and projects do not fall behind. Here are some tips:

Create productive habits and encourage them in your team.

Did you know that to create a habit, you need to repeat an activity for 30 consecutive days for your body to internalize that activity as a routine? According to Charles Duhigg, author of the best-selling book “The Power of Habit”To create a new routine, you need a motivating element and a reward. For example, if you want to get to work earlier every day, place your work clothes already laid out next to your alarm clock. When you wake up, you'll see your motivating element and have a reason to achieve your goal, which is to get to work earlier. After achieving your goal, give yourself a reward at the end of the day. This could be leaving 30 minutes early for a happy hour or surprising your kids at home and taking them out for a stroll.

See also “Why are Brazilians so unproductive?"

Plan, plan, and plan

To avoid living life putting out fires, you need to plan. Plan your team's priorities for the semester, for each month, and for the following week. Encourage them to do the same daily, before opening their inbox. Additionally, invest in strategic planning from the company establishing the organization's global goals. Those who have the habit of planning become more productive, have more focus, and more discipline.

See also the 5 most frequent errors in applying strategic planning

Invest in organization

Create habits Productive and learning to plan ahead will make your team's daily life more organized, and yours as well. But it's important to have organization to further increase your productivity and to face unexpected situations that will arise. Organize your email by priority order, create filters and folders to organize incoming demands, and eliminate precious time by looking at useless emails or spam. Another suggestion is to have an “inbox” on your desk for papers to be analyzed. Never pile papers in a drawer. As soon as a new paper arrives, be it an invoice, document, report, or note, place it in your inbox so it can be included in the next day's planning. Generally, none of these papers are so urgent that they cannot wait until the next day.

Automate your activities as much as you can

Invest in tools that make your work more dynamic and demand more from your intellect than your physical labor. Save time for important analysis and decision-making and skip hours of spreadsheet entry. There are already tools on the market that monitor project status, operational actions, and goal achievement. Investing in software that can facilitate company management will save many hours of work.

See also the article “Dashboard: information for decision-making"

Don't skip your rest times

After putting the tips above into practice, do not underestimate rest periods, as they are fundamental for maintaining your health and consequently your productivity. Take advantage of holidays to rest and relax. Resting is important to recharge the batteries of the body and mind, and is directly associated with learning and memory. Furthermore, it is an excellent combatant against work stress.