The 12 days before Christmas.

• Author: Moran, Brian P.
• Position: The Holidays

PICTURE IT: a mere three days before Christmas and you still have to bake your great-grandma's famous cookies, do your 11th-hour shopping, scrub the house, pick up relatives from the airport, and--oh, yes--finish up that yearend marketing report and field a couple of client calls. You know the holidays are not going to be Norman Rockwell perfect. You have accepted that. Still, it sure would be great if you at least could leave work behind this year and just enjoy (endure?) your family--old sibling rivalries, critical comments from Mom, tipsy Uncle Fred, and all.

Actually, you do not have to show up late to your child's holiday play because you are tying up a work project, or run off to check your e-mail while the turkey gets cold. You just need to muster up some discipline and think about time in a different way. Successful people work with great focus and intention, and they play the same way. When they are working, they are really working and, when they take time off, they make the absolute most of that time. Rest and rejuvenation are the other side of the success coin.

You must be purposeful about how you spend the time leading up to the holiday breaks. The reason many people end up working during their holiday time off is not that they just have so much to do that they never can take a break; it is that they are not working with intention when they have the opportunity--and thus, they are not executing effectively. Our ability to do this impacts not only business profit sheets but the quality of our personal lives.

Many of us spend our days just reacting to the problems that have arisen rather than proactively moving toward our goals, and that is how we can end up feeling pulled in 100 different directions and, of course, it also is why we find ourselves in so much conflict when the holidays roll around--not only must we get all of those loose ends tied up before we are out of the office, we have to add in 100 holiday-specific tasks related to home, friends, and family.

What you need is a new way to think about time and how you use it. In a nutshell, plan your goals in a 12-week year rather than a 12-month one. When you do so, you are far more likely to feel a healthy sense of urgency that gets you focused. As for the present holiday rush, there are a number of ways to feel less stressed and more in control:

Picture the perfect holiday. Gorging on grandma's apple pie; singing carols with your kids; cheering on your favorite football...