CHICAGO — Early in November, pollsters asked 1,900 workers an easy question: Are you more or less productive during the holiday season?

That's a no-brainer, right? Everybody knows we get less done at the office when we add to our normally busy routines the uncertain pleasures of shopping, gift-wrapping, shopping, entertaining, partying — and did we mention shopping?

Yet nearly one in four workers surveyed for staffing firm Hudson claimed to be more productive, while 39 percent said their productivity stays about the same. All told, nearly two-thirds claimed they don't skip a beat during the holiday whirl.

Who are these hyper-productive folks?

They are not, as you might guess, those who abstain from December madness. They are people who plunge right in — the well-organized overachievers, the gregarious networkers.

From the time Kay Allison's Outlook calendar reminds her in August to switch on the bright desk lamp that banishes seasonal affective disorder — the blues associated with dwindling daylight hours — she is planning for December.

"I think of it like a wave," she says. "It's been building."

She's bought most of her gifts, prepared her holiday card list and bought a tree, knowing full well there will be no downtime this month at her consulting firm, The Energy Infuser, which helps companies such as Unilever and Kraft develop new products.

Clients have money left in their budgets. Accounting rules and career imperatives require they spend it now, before the fiscal year closes. Managers need to be able to turn to their bosses and say, "Look at what we accomplished in 2006!"

"This is the time of year when our clients are really demanding and busy," says Allison, founder and chief executive. "We just had a staff meeting where the new people said, 'I'm looking forward to the December rush.' Those of us who've been here a while rolled our eyes."

Bruce Hanson, Midwest regional vice president for MorganFranklin Corp., a financial advisory firm, planned to fly to Washington yesterday for his firm's holiday gala.

Then he was to turn around and fly home today to hunt for a Christmas tree and watch the Bears game before starting an unusually productive stretch into which he will cram four weeks of work.

"People just crank like crazy to get things wrapped up before year-end," he says. "We've got work to finish for clients. It's harder to reach people. There's the holiday party circuit."

A peek at his calendar reveals a United Way celebration; Association for Corporate Growth meeting; Metropolitan Club affair. And so the month goes.

Beth Lorenzini, manager of custom publishing for Gill Ashton Publishing, sees her to-do list expand "like a sponge" around the holidays: Tablecloths to dry cleaners. Decorations. Groceries.

"It's definitely harder to get work done, without question," she says. Yet she forges ahead on a 24-page magazine she must deliver to the printer in January.

"I build in two weeks' extra time in my production schedule," she says.

Meredith O'Connor, director of business development at World Business Chicago, a quasi-public economic development agency, uses December to catch up.

Her office is an oasis of calm compared with home, where her five children younger than 7 create an endless list of "mom duties." When business slows in December, O'Connor gears up.

"This is when I'm tying everything together, making sure every memo that came my way is answered, every phone call, every e-mail," she says. "I update the mayor and my boss on things they probably should have known about earlier."

December also is a good month for contemplative types who would never think of taking off the week after Christmas, that great gulf of quiet that descends just before the new year begins.

"This is a terrific time for me to get a lot of work done," says John P. Miller, senior vice president and Ariel Fund portfolio manager at Chicago's Ariel Capital Management. "It's a very good period for uninterrupted reading.