How do you stay off the holiday season treadmill to get all the work done, card writing, shopping, gift wrapping, parties, phone calls, emails, et al. Well, you don’t! That’s what I’ve learned. I’ve learned that “all” is a pretty big word and here’s where priorities come in.

What is absolutely important and what’s not?  For example, several family members just announced that they’re not doing cards.  They may send out some holiday emails or phone folks, but purchasing, writing, stamping and mailing is out of the question. I’m not offended and I don’t know who would be. I scaled down my list fairly considerably and I too did some emailing and my larger broadcast email. (Take advantage of Constant Comment or Vertical Response online bulk mailing systems for cards to folks at a fraction of the cost of mailing).

But something is definitely out of balance if you can’t organize your time to handle the main priorities and enjoy a cup of eggnog or hot apple drink with friends and family or just on your own without worrying about what you still need to get to or haven’t yet handled. Just say “no” to some things and only take on what you can comfortably manage. If store shopping makes you feel panicky, you can always shop online. That said, there are fewer shoppers pounding the mall pavements then past years, so it may not be as daunting as you imagine.

Don’t miss out on enjoying the beauty of this winter season. It’s the best way to close out this year and welcome in the new one.

Tags: holiday priorities, holiday season balance, out of balance, saying no, setting priorities

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 9:34 am and is filed under Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.