Whether you’re vacationing away or spending a few days at home, few are immune to that short-timer’s anticipation of holiday time off—the one that can freeze December’s productivity in its tracks. But the close of the year also presents an opportunity to end on a high note by increasing productivity instead of succumbing to the pre-holiday slump. And if that’s you, looking to super-achieve your way into 2016, check out these seven simple tips to increase your productivity at work:

1. Create a routine that plays to your strengths. Whether you’re chipper when you roll out of bed, or you find your footing sometime after lunch, you have a natural ebb and flow to your day’s energy. Make the most of it with a routine that tackles tough tasks when your energy is high, and saves the mundane for your daily lows.
2. Keep a time budget. Not enough hours in the day? Find out how much time you’re really spending on email, reports, and social media by keeping a time budget for two weeks. Log everything you do during the day, from projects and email, to lunch breaks and chats with coworkers. You may find you’re spending a lot of time on routine email or social activities. At the end of two weeks, you can assess and adjust your schedule as needed.
3. Work the 80/20 rule. Together with your time budget, the 80/20 rule (80 percent of results come from 20 percent of effort) is a lifesaving tool to reclaiming productivity. Did that email get significantly better because you spent three hours writing it? Probably not—and those three hours no doubt detracted from other tasks you could have tackled. The idea is that many tasks work just as well when the important bases are covered quickly, instead of throwing a lot of time at small details. The 80/20 rule helps keep perfectionism in check.
4. Take breaks from work. Yes, taking 15 minutes for yourself twice a day can actually improve your productivity by refreshing and recentering you—maintaining your level of performance instead of letting it suffer a steady decline. Even better, use those breaks to take walks that get your blood moving through your body and brain.
5. Give yourself deadlines. Got open-ended projects? Self-imposed deadlines can give you the push you need to complete those projects timely. Otherwise other tasks will nudge those projects out further and further.
6. Don’t be a firefighter. Unless you have a big red truck with a firehose, you have responsibilities beyond fighting fires all day. So if all you do is respond to incoming calls and email, you will never get your projects done! Check and respond to incoming messages at set times (say, twice daily), and stick to your game plan for the rest of the day.
7. Surround yourself with happiness. Filling your workspace with things that make you happy—photos, plants, figurines, books—can increase your productivity by 15 percent!

Year-end is a great time to think about working smarter! But the holiday season can be stressful on its own, so between coordinating vacation schedules and closing the books, you may have enough to do without worrying about how to do it better. And if that’s the case, there’s always New Year’s resolutions!