Time Management
Holiday Time Management Tipsby Jan Jasper
If you no longer enjoy the holidays, it’s time to re-think. Who says you have to spend weeks in a frenzy of shopping, visiting, baking, buying, sending cards to people you scarcely know because they sent you one last year, buying outfits you’ll only wear once, gift wrapping, holiday concerts, then returning unwanted gifts?
When you rush from one activity to another, no wonder you don’t enjoy it. For many people, the holidays means spending precious vacation time meeting endless obligations, hours waiting in airports, spending money for things they can’t afford, and beginning the New Year mentally and financially depleted. Why not take back the holidays and celebrate in more enjoyable ways?
The point of the holidays is to relax with your friends and family. Every meal doesn’t have to be elaborate. Hold a potluck instead of doing all the cooking yourself. A variant on this is to collaborate on holiday baking. A group of friends or neighbors plan together, each bakes a large amount of a particular cookie or pie and shares it with the group. Everyone ends up with a variety of treats with a fraction of the effort because each makes only one recipe.
Planning get-togethers is easy with an internet-based invitation service such as evite.com, which lets you quickly send invitations to a group of people, send directions, and receive their RSVPs via e-mail.
Prepare for snafus: If you’re flying and must take a connecting flight to reach your destination, don’t schedule so tightly that if your first flight is late you miss your connection. Waiting time at the airport can be spent reading, catching up on your correspondence, or phoning your greetings to people you know are alone at this time of year—don’t forget those who have no family to visit! Save time and aggravation at the airport by mailing your wrapped gifts in advance and avoiding the long line at baggage check.
About those gifts—the easiest way is to shop way in advance. If, in July, you see something your daughter would love, buy it then. By December all your gifts are bought, all you have to do is wrap them. Catalogs are great time-savers for holiday shopping. Ask your spouse and kids to look through their favorite catalogs and sign their names by items they want. This not only spares you having to fight the holiday crowds at the mall, but everybody gets what they want so there’s nothing to exchange later. A variant on catalog shopping is to buy your gifts on the Internet.
If you do shop in the stores just before the holiday, take advantage of stores’ gift-wrapping services. For those hard-to-please people on your list, how about getting them a gift certificate?
When will you find time to stamp, address, and mail out dozens of holiday greeting cards? Frankly, few people enjoy sending them, and the recipient’s brief pleasure is outweighed by feeling obligated to send you a card in return. So just skip the cards. Many people will be relieved --it lets them off the hook so you’ll get far fewer cards next year. For people you really want to acknowledge, send them a card at Thanksgiving—people get far fewer cards then so your card will truly be appreciated.
Plan to return a day or two before you go back to work. This gives you time to shop for groceries, do the laundry, deal with the mail, etc. This way you begin the New Year rested, not harried.
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Jan Jasper has been training busy people to work smarter, not harder, since 1988. She helps clients streamline their procedures, use technology efficiently, and manage task & information overload. Jan is the author of TAKE BACK YOUR TIME: HOW TO REGAIN CO
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