INSIDE: It’s time for Challenge #3 of the 30 Days to a Stress-Free Christmas challenge! So far, we’ve talked about how to get your Christmas planning started and thinking about what gifts to buy. The topic for today? How to get organised for Christmas – the easy way! Want to know what it is? Keep reading!
Welcome to Day 3 of 30 Days to a Stress-Free Christmas!
So many members of the A Simple and Contented Life community have told me that every year they promise themselves they’ll get sorted for Christmas early. That they’ll get everything done well in advance with plenty of time to spare. But for whatever reason, it never happens. Well, thanks to this challenge, this year is going to be different!
This 30-day challenge is going to help you get ahead of the game and nail your Christmas planning BEFORE December starts. With the help of this challenge, come the holiday season, you’ll be able to enjoy the mulled wine and mince pies along with everyone else because everything will have been taken care of!
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?!
The first challenge in this series was all about getting your Christmas planning started. How doing a mind dump and getting all those Christmas thoughts onto paper allows you to think more clearly. Yesterday, Challenge #2 was all about your Christmas gift planning and how to start thinking about what to buy. We all know that when it comes to doing our Christmas shopping, the earlier we start, the better! And so hopefully yesterday’s challenge helped you to get a few ideas down on paper.
There’ll be more on gifts and how to finalise your gift list in a few days’ time. Now though it’s time to move onto today’s challenge and get organised for Christmas. Are you ready? Let’s do this!
Challenge #3: Get organised for Christmas…
Getting organised for Christmas…
Finding time to get everything done can be hard at the best of times. Throw Christmas into the mix and suddenly our already never-ending to-do lists become a whole lot longer. It can be very easy to feel overwhelmed and not know what to do first – especially if we don’t already have a lot of free time.
Thankfully, there are a couple of things we can do to reduce that overwhelm and make conquering that to-do list easier. The first is to work out how much free time we have. The second is to make a plan on how best to use it. And that’s what today’s challenge is all about! Today we’re going to make time for Christmas and find time for all your Christmas planning!
How to get organised for Christmas…
When will you do your Christmas shopping? When will you wrap your presents? And when is best to plan your Christmas menu and go food shopping? Just how will you make time for your Christmas planning and get organised for Christmas?
How much free time do you have and how best can you use the time you have to get everything done?
Think about your daily routine and what you get up to at the weekends. Get out your diary and take a look at what you have going on. What does a typical day look like for you? Are there any free pockets of time that you can devote to your Christmas planning? And are there parts of your day where you know you’re not being as productive as you could be…times where you’re just scrolling on social media or watching TV…that you could use to get organised for Christmas instead?
Make a plan…
If you’re going to get organised for Christmas and have your Christmas planning nailed before the holiday season starts, you need have a plan. And that means knowing where your pockets of free time are and using them to your advantage. Doing this means you won’t be spinning in circles not knowing what to do next. It means that when you do have a few moments you’ll know how best to spend it. And that means you’ll be productive instead of just ‘busy’…which means you’ll get more done in less time!
Not only will being intentional with your time help you to get organised for Christmas, you’ll find that you have more time to enjoy the Christmas festivities with your kids too. It’s a win-win! So, figure out what free time you have, where your pockets of free time are and make a plan!
Not sure where your pockets of free time are?
It may feel like you don’t have any pockets of free time but I promise you, you do. We all have pockets of free time here and there throughout our day, it’s just that we fill them with things that aren’t really that important without realising.
If you’re finding it hard to identify where your pockets of free time are, spend a few days tracking your time. Use your notebook to track what you get up to throughout the day and you’ll soon spot where you’re wasting your time. You’ll discover where you can claw some of that time back and use it to get organised for Christmas instead.
Finding it hard to find time?
Don’t fret! Here are a few ways you can claw back time and make more time to get organised for Christmas:
- Get up one hour earlier. Use it to plan your gift list or write out your Christmas meal plan before everyone else gets up.
- Batch your tasks together. Need to go into town? What Christmas shopping/prepping can be done at the same time?
- Buy your Christmas food shopping during your normal food shop.
- Spread out the purchasing of your Christmas non-perishables over the next few weeks and you won’t have so much to get come Christmas. It’ll be easier on the wallet too!
- Stay-at-home mum? Use the first hour of each day after you’ve dropped your kids off at school or nursery to tick something off your Christmas to-do list.
- Use the hour of nap-time to wrap a few presents or write your Christmas cards – whilst enjoying a cup of coffee at the same time!
- Working mum? Make use of your lunch break. If you normally work through your lunch break or just sit at your desk, use that time to do some Christmas planning. Order your gifts online or if you’re going away, make a start on your packing list.
- Use your evenings wisely. Instead of just sitting in front of the TV, do some Christmas planning while you do it. Wrap a few presents, work out your Christmas meal plan, write some Christmas cards.
- Make a plan the night before. Take a few minutes to go through your notebook, see what needs doing. Ask yourself if there’s anything you can add to your to-do list for the following day. Make those tasks your top priority for the day and do them before you do anything else.
Make time to get organised for Christmas…
Making the effort to work out how much free time you have and being productive instead of just ‘busy‘ really will make all the difference. Sure, it might mean that for a few weeks you have to give up zonking out on the sofa in the evenings. That you have to avoid getting distracted by other things for a while. But the long-term gain will be totally worth the short-term pain.
Think how great you’ll feel come December when you’re able to enjoy all the festivities along with everyone else without having to worry about or stress over all the things you’ve not yet done. Making the most of those pockets of free time and clawing back time you waste elsewhere to devote to your Christmas planning so that you can get organised for Christmas in advance is totally worth it…I promise!
That’s it for now!
I’ll be back tomorrow with challenge #4 of 30 Days to a Stress-Free Christmas challenge. In the meantime, good luck working out how best to use your time. And if you need a little help, just shout…I’m here for you! And don’t forget to check out the rest of the posts for this challenge if you haven’t done so already!
That’s it for this post! Are you enjoying this Christmas challenge? Your feedback really matters to me and I love hearing from my readers…so head over here and let me know!
Until next time…
P.S. Get all of the Christmas challenges by email!
Want a little more accountability? Don’t forget that you can sign up to receive each challenge by email! Every day for the next 30 days I’ll land in your inbox with the next Christmas challenge. A great way to remind you to take action, you’ll also receive my FREE Ultimate Christmas Planning Checklist too!
In it, you’ll find checklists for your Christmas budget, Christmas shopping, meal planning and prepping, family traditions, planning your travel and so much more. With every Christmas planning step you can possibly think of listed, no stone will be left unturned and nothing will be forgotten!
Simply enter your email address below and I’ll send it to you right away along with the first challenge!
