Life Tips Daily

Were you wondering when tomorrow would come? Sorry about that: I blinked and Tuesday was gone in a flash. So, are you ready to have the most organized Christmas season you’ve ever had? Ready to make frazzled friends and family members green with envy as you flit through the holidays with a smile on your face and a spring in your step?

Today we’re going to talk all about organizing yourself. Because we all have such diverse families and friends and traditions during the holiday season, it’s hard to hit upon one set of tips that’ll work for everybody. Generally, the larger your family and group of friends, the more organizing is needed (which I’m sure comes as no surprise to you from past experience!). One tool that will help you stay organized during this busy season is a calendar. Along with the decision to use a calendar, you must commit to referring to it regularly, and recording all invitations and plans in it too. Otherwise, it’s just a useless piece of paper.

Get yourself a calendar with nice large boxes for each day for the months of November and December (at least). If January tends to be busy, then print out one for January too. If you’ll be using a two calendar system, your second calendar should be one that is broken down by day into 30 minute or 1 hour increments. In the first calendar, write all the events you have committed yourself to, in the second you can figure out the logistics: if you need two hours to bake the cake you’re taking to the potluck, you may want to make a note of that. Or, if you have multiple events in a day, the second calendar will give you a better idea of how you’re going to juggle all the demands on your time (and person). The second calendar will also let you know if you have 2 hours to drop by at a coworker’s open house (the one you received an invitation for at the last minute).

The large calendar should be posted in a prominent location in the house where you’ll pass it frequently, glance at it and be reminded of your obligations. The weekly calendar should be the one you carry with you, the one you refer to when someone tries to invite you to their daughter’s recital and is wondering if you’re free that evening.

Now some of you might prefer to use electronic calendars, the type found on Outlook or on gmail. and that’s fine. Call me old fashioned but nothing beats filling in a calendar by hand for me—I like seeing my busy schedule on paper for some reason. And the bonus is at Christmas time, when the kids are getting excited over their advent calendars, you can make yourself a colourful calendar…and then eat some chocolate after each update. It’s almost like having your own advent calendar!