Make a list
For some Americans, it won’t truly feel like Christmas is here until Thanksgiving has passed, but for Canadians who celebrated Thanksgiving over a month ago, and people who don’t have another holiday before Christmas, Christmas is approaching a little too fast, and the number of things to be put into place before December 25th are overwhelming.
When you find yourself starting to become overwhelmed, instead of letting thoughts of all that you have to do swirl around in your head, stressing you out and possibly causing headaches, give each its moment in the limelight and write them down on a list. A list can be an easy cure to being stressed because you’re giving your mind permission to stop thinking about it and taking a small step towards the completion of the task.
You can create a general list of all that needs to be done, and then create smaller mini lists for each task or sub-task. Once you know what you do, you can tackle crossing items off your lists!
Other great things about writing and having a list are:
- The sense of accomplishment from checking items off it can get addictive. If you have a list and know that when a task is completed it will be removed by either crossing it off or checking it off, you may become addicted to making lists.
- It allows you to prioritize and organize the things you have to do. Once you see them on a list you have a better idea of what needs to be done and in what order things should be done. If items on the list are linked to each other (e.g. one has to be done before the other), having a list helps you see those links and create a logical order.
- Your brain is free to do other things, such as memorize a song or work on a crossword puzzle because your list is there to help you keep track of what needs doing.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
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