With so much to do during the holiday season, it's important to follow a few tips on time management. The holiday season is a perfect breeding ground for stress. You have many things to do, too much money outgoing and not enough incoming, travel, colds or flu and all this on top of the "normal" that is already stressful. But stress and anxiety can be banished from your holiday season. In fact, it should be banished.
The holidays is about spending time with friends and family, being thankful and helping others. Holiday stress builds when that doesn't seem to be enough. We want to do more mixes with we can't do more.
If you want a real stress eraser, spread out the season in weeks, not days. If you have one weekend to get the tree, decorate, go shopping, get the kids to their activities, take the dog to the vet (before noon!) and bake two dozen cookies for the school party on Monday, something will have to give.
By planning it out, you can do more. Shopping online at your convenience is one way to avoid the holiday crowds. Start a new tradition. Instead of getting up at 3:30 am the day after Thanksgiving to hit the holiday madness, resist and sleep in. You wake up at 7:00 am, have a nice breakfast and then spend the morning baking cookies with family. With six dozen cookies put up in the freezer, those last-minute parties mean having homemade cookies on hand without fitting two more hours into a packed weekend. Then spend the afternoon addressing cards so they are ready to send out on December 1.
The next day or perhaps the following weekend go get your tree and do the inside decorating. Decorate outside before the cold nasty weather hits or, if it blows in on Thanksgiving, wait until the next weekend. By planning ahead and doing small amounts at a time, you not only have less holiday stress but you also increase the joy of the season.
No rule says everything connected with the holidays must be done in December. Do yourself a favor, and get a shelf or a plastic tub, and place in an accessible but out-of-the way-room of the home. The week after Christmas you're going to pick up a few things: wrapping paper, bows and small decorations for example-all at discounted prices on clearance.
As the spring and summer seasons pass by, be on the lookout for deals. When you see something and think so-and-so would like that, buy it, wrap it and put it in your tub. You save money, and you spread the shopping out where in many cases by mid-November you have gifts for everyone, already wrapped. This alone eliminates holiday stress. No high credit card bills, no debt, no crowds fighting for the latest gadget that will be forgotten next year.
While others are battling for parking at the mall, you're leisurely baking holiday treats. While they're scrambling to bake for the holidays, you're relaxing with family in front of the tree making memories. The holidays should be more about memories, and less about "what did you get me?" Have a great holiday season-stress and debt free!
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