Do you have a plan for the Holiday Season?

Do you have a plan the Holiday Season? The Holiday Season is filled with magic, activities, stress and sometimes overwhelm. It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of the season and then when it’s over wonder how time flew by. Now is the perfect time to create a plan for the season.  

Reflection

It all starts with reflection; everything starts with reflection. Start by really thinking about the Holidays. As yourself the following questions:

• How do I want the season to feel?
• What do I want to experience this season?
• How can I show up as my best self this season?
• When it’s all over, what will be the best memories?
• What do I need to accomplish to fully enjoy the season?
• What are the busy tasks that don’t produce the magic?
• What are the stressful activities that I can remove?
• How can I plan at work or in business so I can take time to enjoy?
• What would my ideal holiday look like?

Planning

Once you have an idea of how you would like your holiday to go, it’s time to start planning. Planning the holiday season will help you create the magic AND enjoy the magic.

First, look at your calendar and block off the days you will be off, NOT WORKING! Including weekends. Block those suckers right off.

Task Organizing

Next, count the days on your calendar you will be working and calculate the number of working hours. This is your available time to get your work completed. Do the same for the non-working days.

Once you know how many hours you have, it’s time to really think about your to-do list. Take out that list and add anything that is not on the list to it for work and personal.

Once you have everything, I mean everything on the list, review the list and group the items into similar groups. For example, if you have some tasks related to creating content group those. If you have a bunch of errands to do, group those.

Pick a group that is highly important, make sure you have everything related to that group listed, now think about the items in that group and determine how long it will take to complete the group of tasks. Two hours? Three hours? More? Great, jot that time next to the group. And move on to the next group of tasks until all have a time associated with the group.

Scheduling

Now it’s time to make the magic happen. The key to a magical holiday season is plugging in your task groups into your calendar. Take those groups and plug them into your working time that is remaining on your calendar; all of them. Then sprinkle in some email checking time. The reason this works is you are putting on your calendar your priorities first.

Work the plan

The next and final step is to work the plan. When that block of time comes up, do the work. Head down, no distractions, focused work. Challenge yourself to get it completed quicker than you thought you would. Knock it out.

Enjoy the Magic of the Season

You earned it, enjoy your time off. Soak in the magic of the season and be truly present for your family. You don’t have to worry about anything you forgot, your tasks are all planned out and it will happen. Stay longer at the event, listen to one more song, get on the floor with the kids and play. This is what the season is all about, enjoy every minute.