Here in Australia, it’s starting to get sweaty. The air conditioner’s not really cutting it anymore, frozen water bottles are your new best friend, and you’re feeling tempted to wear shorts to work.

What does this mean? It’s the holidays, and nobody wants to be doing anything. So it might be best for everyone if you close up shop for the year. Let’s have a look at a few things to get done before you enjoy that well-earned time off.

Let everyone know you’ll be closed.

Clients, employees, volunteers, investors, stakeholders, all these groups need to know that you and the rest of the board will be heading out for the holidays. Send them all a quick email, text, or phone call to give them the heads up and wish them happy holidays.

Set up your answering services.

You’ve seen this before. It’s fairly standard practice across just about every industry, but it can also slip your mind pretty easily. Change your phone’s answering machine message to detail your available hours over the holidays. Set up an auto-replier with your email service detailing the same. Sit in the pool and crack a beer.

Schedule any social media.

Your company might have an Instagram, a blog, maybe a Twitter. This is how you interact and communicate with the public, and if you’ve been keeping your social media active throughout the year, suddenly dropping it over the holidays might leave some stakeholders confused.

Build up a queue of posts to tide you over for the few weeks you’re gone, and stay confident that you’ll be in your community’s conscious even while you’re away.

Review your goals.

Have one last sit-down with the rest of the board and look over your plans. Give yourselves a refresher on your vision, mission, and goals, and remind yourselves why you’re here. Build up some morale, and guide your team into the new year on a positive note.

Handle any final business.

It’s going to be pretty hard to relax with family and friends if you can’t stop thinking about work. The easiest way to do that is to get the work done. If you’re at your desk, sweating up a storm, thinking about leaving that one last project for after you get back, don’t do it. It’ll haunt you endlessly until it’s done, I promise.

Switch off!

No that all that’s sorted, there’s only one last thing to do: kick back, relax, enjoy your holidays. It’s been a big year, right? Take a break, spend some time with your loved ones, and charge your batteries for another big year to come.

Happy holidays from everyone here at Process PA! We’ll see you next year.