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Strategies For Avoiding Holiday Stress
Contributed by Anne Blumer
www.solutionsforyou.com
After we are all happily stuffed from our Thanksgiving
feast, our attention starts to turn towards the holidays of
December. Are you ready? Do you have a plan? The best way to
avoid the stress of the holidays is to have a plan and stick
to it. With a plan you can easily say yes or no to
invitations and events based upon what you decided is a
priority for you and your family during the holiday season.
To help you create your holiday plan follow my
5 Steps to Organizing®
and strategies for avoiding holiday stress.
STEP 1: Strategize
List all your holiday activities that you want to
prioritize.
List everyone that is on your gift list.
What is your budget for gift giving?
STEP 2: Group and Reduce
Work from the above list and eliminate the activities you
and your family do not wish to continue.
Eliminate the activities that are in your "should" category.
If it is too difficult to decide, narrow down your
activities by allowing each family member to pick only one
activity that is most important to them.
Create new traditions as your family grows and matures.
Make an agreement with those on your previous gift exchange
list to eliminate that practice this year or donate your
time, money or possessions to a charity.
STEP 3: Assign a Zone
Write down your new and improved list of activities,
traditions, and gift list you want to continue this year.
This list is what you will now use to create your timeline
for the rest of the month.
STEP 4: Contain and Label
On your family calendar write down when you are going to do
each activity and any other days necessary to complete the
activity.
For example, gift making can involve more than one day to
buy materials, make gifts, wrap gifts, and mail or deliver
gifts. Or, hosting a holiday open house involves planning
the menu, deciding who to invite, buying or making the
invitations, shopping for the food, preparing the food, and
cleaning the house.
Work backwards from Christmas Day or Chanukah to determine
what you (and others) need to do and when in order to stay
focused and organized.
STEP 5: Evaluate and Maintain
Can you follow this plan easily?
Did this plan enable you to enjoy the activities you chose?
Did this plan enable you to enlist the help of your family?
Will you want to continue this next year?
Now you, and your family, have an agreed upon holiday plan.
When other activities come up — invitations to parties,
school productions, etc. — you can look at your holiday
calendar plan and decide if it will fit into your plan. If
not, say NO and be at peace with your decision. If it will,
say YES and enjoy the holidays!
Featured Products
Save 10% or more on this month's Featured Products!
These products will help you prepare for the
upcoming holidays, and if you buy now, you can save a little money
as well. We all know this is a busy time of year, but
these products will help you plan your celebrations, organize your
gift-giving, and store your treasured holiday decorations. Use these
items to reduce your holiday stress!
Featured Partners
Every month
we like to highlight some of the Partners that have helped to
contribute to our success by providing those wonderful "Tip of the
Week" or "Product Reviews".
We hope that you will visit their
website and engage their services when you need some help getting
organized.
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