When was the last time you had a really relaxing holiday?

I don’t mean that peaceful thirty-minute aftermath that follows a successful dinner party or the kids’ gift-opening extravaganza. I mean a holiday that is relaxing, from beginning to end. That includes travel, dinner preparations, and shopping.

All it will take is a little organization and advance planning. Here are some tips to get you started.

Plan your travel now. Need to be out of town to see family or friends? If you haven’t already made arrangements, make it a priority. Especially if you plan to fly, the best deals disappear fast. Get online and start shopping around as soon as you know where you need to be and when. Once the arrangements are made, start getting things squared away with work. Whether you need to request time off, reschedule a recurring meeting, or just let your employees know that you’ll be gone, do it as soon as possible. Depending on where you work, getting holiday time off can be competitive. Especially in this case, the early bird tends to get the worm.

Make a budget. Unless you’ve got more money that you know what to do with, it is easy for the holiday season to turn into a financial headache. Ninety-nine percent of that stress can be eliminated by thinking ahead and making a budget. Financial sanity doesn’t come from having a ton of money; it comes from spending it wisely.

Decide how much you’re going to spend and stick to it. Letting yourself creep over your budget probably isn’t going to make you a hero in the gift department, but it might cost you a gray hair or two when it comes time to sort out the holiday bills. How many times have you charged expensive items and spent five months paying for them? See if you can break tradition this year by drawing names or just sending cards. Tell the people you’re not buying for that you’ve pared down your gift list out of necessity and ask them not to buy for you as well.

Avoid the shopping marathon. Unless you really do enjoy the “shop ’till you drop” marathon mall sessions, skip the all-day shopping trips. If you start now (or better yet, six months ago), you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done by picking up an item here and there while you’re running your everyday errands. The secret is to sit down, make a list of the people you need to shop for, and keep it with you.

Ideally, your list will include one or two gift options for each person, too. Keep your list with you and cross off a few people every week. Also keep your eye out for stocking stuffers and similar small items. And as for that whole Black Friday thing – if you don’t enjoy it, skip it! Unless shopping is in your blood, the money you’ll save probably isn’t worth the aggravation.

Wrap as you go. Don’t put all of your wrapping off until the last minute. As you pick things up, go ahead and wrap them as soon as you get a chance. Wrap a couple extras for a guest who shows up unexpectedly and gives you a gift. It helps to have a dedicated wrapping area cornered off that is well-stocked with all the essentials – wrapping paper, scissors, gift tags, tape, etc. The easier you make it for yourself, the more likely you are to get it done.

Simplify, simplify. No matter how cool your friends and family might play it, you are NOT the only one who gets stressed out around the holidays. If the stress of preparations is getting out of hand, don’t be afraid to propose a simplified pot-luck dinner instead of a more elaborate affair or a gift exchange instead of shopping for everyone individually. Even if you just try this approach with a small group of friends or extended family, it’ll be at least a small relief for everyone involved. When it comes to reducing you holiday workload, every little bit helps.

Make friends with the Internet. More and more shoppers are finally taking the plunge and skipping the traditional brick and mortar stores completely. Internet shopping has come a long way in the last few years and you might be surprised at how simple it has gotten. You can easily compare prices and can generally find good deals on shipping that will guarantee arrival in plenty of time for the big day.

Play your cards right. Many people take one look at that mound of Christmas cards and can suddenly think of three or four other things that require their immediate attention. We love getting cards but hate the prospect of doing ours. So we procrastinate until December 22 and pull another 2 a.m. shift to get them in the mail by Christmas. So, I look at my cards as a process. Breaking the project down into smaller pieces makes it seem more manageable. You can even begin now! The first thing I do is create the labels.

Second, I stick them on the envelopes with a return address label and stamp. Next, I write the family newsletter and get it copied onto the special paper. Finally, I set up an assembly line: (a) add a salutation to the card such as “Dearest X Family,” (b) sign our names, (c) enclose the newsletter and a picture, and (d) seal the envelope with a sticker. No licking for me! If you prefer to hand-write your cards, the trick is to write five each day, starting the day after Thanksgiving. Take some with you wherever you go, in case you find some free time: at the doctor’s office, waiting for a meeting to begin, or picking your child up from a lesson.

Cheat. Unless you really enjoy preparing mass quantities of food from scratch, there’s no reason not to take advantage of a short-cut or two. Particularly when it comes to the dessert menu, there are plenty of quick and easy mixes that can help you shave some serious time off of your meal preparation schedule. Just go to the grocery store and find a few easy-to-make offerings or buy something from the deli. For a special touch you can dress your desserts with extra holiday sprinkles or a squiggle of chocolate sauce across the plate for a very restaurant-looking presentation.

Give yourself the gift of time. How about purchasing a few months of housekeeping instead of clothes? Purchase a gift certificate to a restaurant so you don’t have to cook. Have the veterinarian groom your dog instead of doing it yourself, being soaked, and making a mess. Buy a book on tape to listen to in the car on the way to work. Purchase a cell phone and eliminate phone tag by forwarding your calls when you leave the office. Have your groceries delivered once a week for a month (less than the cost of a blouse). Hire a teenager to do the major cleaning required before houseguests arrive.

Remember your priorities. Take shortcuts where it really doesn’t matter: buy cookies instead of baking them or barter a task you don’t like for one you do. I know two women who trade chores at holiday time. One hates to bake; the other hates to do crafts. So one woman decorates the other’s home and wraps her presents beautifully; the other does the meal preparation and holiday baking for the other! Cut out as many social engagements as possible if you want more family time—you can’t go to a school musical when it’s more convenient. Kids appreciate happy and relaxed parents more than perfect decorations.

Get moving! However you choose to get a head start on the holiday season, you won’t regret putting in the extra effort early on. Keep yourself motivated by thinking about how nice it will be to cruise through the end of December stress-free and full of holiday spirit. You might make a date with yourself to visit the mall on the last weekend before Christmas—just so you can observe the mayhem you successfully avoided by being so productive!

© 2008 Laura Stack.

When you don’t feel well, you have lower energy, and it’s hard to be productive. Therefore, it’s important to take good care of your health, to get regular check-ups, and to investigate chronic conditions you’ve resigned yourself to. Given how quickly medical science advances, it’s a good idea to check into the possibility of new treatments on a regular basis.

Follow these tips, and you may end up feeling better than you have in years.

1. Practice good self care. Line up your routine checkups, screenings, and exams, especially if you’re over 40 or suffer from a chronic condition. When did you last have a physical? Schedule future reminders in your calendar and stick to them.

2. Take care of your teeth. Good dental hygiene can add years to your life. Periodontal bacterial by-products resulting from poor dental care can enter the bloodstream and travel to major organs, setting off other problems.

3. Treat your cold. Instead of toughing it out and showing up for work anyway when you’re sick with a cold, stay home and treat your symptoms; otherwise, you’re likely to infect other people. Ask your doctor what he recommends in treating symptoms.

4. Disinfect your environment. A weakened immune system due to an infection can leave you listless and susceptible to opportunistic illnesses. Decrease your likelihood of illness by keeping your work area clean. Wipe it down with disinfectants on a regular basis, and don’t eat at your desk.

5. Have more sex. Spending quality time between the sheets can lower your stress and improve your immune system. Orgasms may also relieve headaches and menstrual symptoms, and people with a good sex life also seem better able to ward off colds and depression.

6. Laugh! Laughter really can be the best medicine. Laughing can build levels of the antibody IgA, one of the body’s first line of defense against germs. If you get sick a lot, maybe you’re just not laughing enough.

7. Don’t give up on fighting chronic pain. Consistent physical pain can really sap your energy. Instead of just putting up with it, check with your doctor to see what your options are. Don’t take “you’ll have to live with it” as an answer.

8. Clean the air. If you don’t have allergies, but you’re sneezing a lot, your nose is running, and your eyes are watering, call an air duct cleaning company and have them do a thorough cleaning to remove any contaminants in your HVAC system.

Learn to take personal responsibility for taking care of any health problems you suffer. Don’t wait for something to feel “wrong” before you get it checked out. Identify the wellness issues that are affecting your energy and causing you to feel poorly, and address those issues aggressively.

Have you ever found yourself trying to make plans with a friend, just play with the kids, or do something fun for yourself, only to find your planner so full that “maybe next month” is the best you can do? If so, you probably have that old Ado Annie syndrome… you’re “just a girl who cain’t say no.”

We all want to feel like great parents, accomplished at work, and like we’re giving back to the community. It is human nature to want success and to please others. It’s good to feel that way – to be ambitious, to be busy, and to get things done. But how much is too much? “Yes” is a good thing – in moderation.

Productivity doesn’t mean filling every moment of every day with tasks that further some agenda. Prepare yourself for upcoming burnout if your schedule is so full that there isn’t time for family, friends and yes — YOU.

Because you are good at what you do, people will always ask for your help and your input. They want you to join another board, sew the costumes for the school play, or write the homeowner’s association newsletter. Just because your calendar has a blank spot, it doesn’t mean you have to say “yes” when someone wants to fill that time.

Look at your priorities and take the time to set boundaries for yourself so that you only take on the tasks and activities you truly can and want to complete. What activities on your task list can you outsource? What can you eliminate completely? You know you’re going to get a call or email soon saying “will you…?” Be prepared. Take a deep breath and say it with me – “No.” See – it wasn’t that hard, was it? Well, it may take some practice, but you CAN do it!

It’s OK to say “no” without guilt and without apology. Give yourself that permission right now. Your time is valuable. You simply have to leave some of it for yourself to enjoy those things in life which bring you pleasure and joy. That’s the kind of time that is the juice which “recharges your battery” so that when you are on task you can be productive. Give yourself the gift of some time. You’re worth it.

© 2008 Laura Stack.

It may seem a tad paradoxical, but you can’t be productive if you don’t know how to relax. Leisure activities and relaxation like reading, talking, playing games, and other non-gadget pastimes can reduce your stress levels and increase your energy.

1. Step off the merry-go-round. If you’ve recently undergone a particularly busy spell, you may be addicted to going full-throttle. When your mind’s sick and tired of working, but your body can’t stop, you need to slam on the brakes.

2. Understand that rest isn’t a bad thing. You don’t feel guilty about going to the bathroom, so why feel guilty about resting? While too much rest can cut into your productivity, an occasional break is necessary to top up your energy reserves.

3. Set aside some “me” time. Pamper yourself occasionally; it’s okay to think about yourself and do something simply for the pleasure of it. It’s not about being selfish; it’s about self-care and energy replenishment.

4. Don’t feel guilty when you play. When you’re playing, don’t dwell on what you could be doing instead. Be present in your play and enjoy yourself. After all, if you wait until all your work is done before you play, you’ll never play.

5. Don’t be a workaholic. If you’re a workaholic, get help. Too much work can literally make you sick. You’re likely to burn out, which can lead to depression, excessive physical and emotional stress, and a shortage of physical energy.

6. Learn to unwind. If you find yourself unable to relax after a stressful day, try progressive relaxation for 30 minutes. It quiets your mind, and it’s particularly helpful if you suffer from insomnia.

7. Take regular vacations. Stress and leisure are inversely proportional: the less leisure time you build into your overall life, the more stress you’ll experience — and that translates into less energy. Take all the vacation time you’re due.

8. Don’t jam up vacations with work. Work and play are meant to be separate, so make sure they stay that way. A working vacation isn’t a vacation — it’s work. The quality of a vacation isn’t measured by the output, so leave your cell phone, Blackberry, and laptop at home.

Learn to take it easy to you can become more productive than ever. This might sound like something Zen, but the truth is that even seemingly quiet, relaxing uses of free time are energy-builders — not energy drains.

Look around you, at work and home. Do you feel overjoyed or annoyed? Your environment affects your moods, attitudes, emotions, and energy level. What things sap your energy? You need to figure out ways to reduce, eliminate, or change your environment, so that it lifts you up rather than brings you down. These tidbits might help.

1. Clear the clutter. This requires effort and can be time-consuming, but the real reason people dread clearing clutter is emotional attachment — and because you no idea how to organize what you keep. Focus first on the areas of the home that are most important to your health and vitality, especially the bedroom.

2. Thin out the incoming stream. We all have a constant stream of mail and new possessions coming into our lives. If you don’t develop a regular habit of thinning it out as it walks through the door, it’ll pile up and zap your energy in no time.

3. Create space with the right layout and equipment. If you get buried in clutter simply because you don’t know where to put things, learn to make creative use of the space you have — including vertical space.

4. Learn to live more simply. Instead of piling on new possessions until you just have to many, stop buying and take a hard look at what you have. Don’t equate material possessions with wealth or happiness, or — worse yet — self worth.

5. Get rid of it. If you don’t learn how to get rid of things, you’ll be overwhelmed with your possessions. Unworn clothing, unwanted gifts, ancient paperwork — get rid of it. If you haven’t used it in two years, ditch it.

6. Accentuate the positive. Separate the trash from the treasure. You don’t need to keep unwanted gifts simply because they’re gifts. And don’t be afraid to get rid of things that are dragging you down with emotional baggage: there’s a reason women burn photographs of their old boyfriends.

7. Keep your office desk organized. No, a clean desk isn’t the sign of a simple mind: it’s the sign of an efficient, energetic mind! The more space there is, the less crowded your energy is. File rather than pile, and gather up those sticky notes!

8. Make a list of the home improvement projects you want to accomplish. Nagging, incomplete projects not only create clutter, they also drag your mood down because another thing on your to-do list is staring you in the face. Dispatch routine tasks as soon as possible, and work to get the others off your calendar.

Clearing away clutter may seem like too much work, but you need to learn how to do it effectively for your own benefit. Once you cut down on the clutter in your life, you can move on to more productive levels of emotion and energy that put you ahead of the game.

© 2008 Laura Stack.

You might be surprised to learn that there’s a simple treatment that boosts energy levels, improves memory, increases your ability to concentrate, strengthens your immune system, and decreases your risk of death and injury in accidents. Amazingly, it costs absolutely nothing, and is available to anyone. It’s called “sleep.” Ever heard of it?

Quality, restful, undisturbed sleep is one of the keys to maximizing your daytime energy level, but it may take a little tinkering to find what’s right for you. Here are a few tips that can help.

1. Catch the right number of Z’s. Experiment with finding the amount of sleep that’s right for you, and stick with it religiously — even on the weekends and holidays!

2. Nap wisely. If you absolutely have to take a nap, limit it to one hour — and don’t nap at all if you suffer from insomnia.

3. Treat sleep disorders. If you can’t get any rest, have yourself tested for sleep disorders. There are over 100, and each can interfere with your physical and emotional well being.

4. Lose weight. Obesity and poor sleep patterns go hand-in-hand, and just make each other worse. Your only real choice is to nip obesity in the bud.

5. Reset your body clock. Faulty circadian rhythms can foul up the timing of your normal sleep/wake cycle. The fix? Work to reset your body clock naturally.

6. Create the right sleep environment. Your bedroom should be your sleeping sanctuary, not a place to read, knit, or watch TV. If your body associates bed with sleep, you’ll get to sleep more quickly and sleep better.

7. Eat, drink, and be sleepy. Never go to bed hungry, but don’t go to bed right after dinner either. In addition, you should watch your intake of alcohol, water, and stimulants late in the evening.

8. Sleep well when traveling. Look for hotels, like the Crowne Plaza chain, that understand the need for great sleep and provide for it. If you plan to travel several time zones away, try resetting your body clock in advance.

Never underestimate the value of a good night’s sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll suffer fatigue, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, and irritability the next day. While the body can dig into its reserves for a few days, inadequate sleep will eventually reduce your effectiveness at anything you attempt to do.

Are you working your life away? Yes, you, the one working six days a week, 12 hours a day. Oh, so you “rest” on the seventh day? Hey, even God rested on the seventh day. You, however, put in a few more hours. When did you confuse your job with your life? Leisure, wellness, fun, and stress reduction are all an essential part of any productive routine. If you have a hard time kicking back, here are a few suggestions you should try.

1. Close the mental office “door” and turn off work each day. It’s okay to love what you do; it’s okay to have passion for your work. But you’re not defined by what you do professionally. Stop being a workaholic, and learn to slow down.

2. Leave work on time, so you can get home and enjoy your personal life. Your personal life is at least as important as your work life. Facing this reality and learning to work with it will make you feel more successful and less stressed.

3. Keep your stress levels low. Lighten up and laugh at life’s absurdities. Remember, the lower your stress level, the higher your appreciation of life and your ability to care for others.

4. Rest, relax, and play daily. Some 40 percent of people surveyed say they don’t spend enough time enjoying leisure activities. The biggest obstacle to play? Ourselves. Give yourself permission to have fun.

5. Go on a long vacation each year. Everyone needs a change of pace and scenery and fun on a regular basis. Vacations offer the restorative power many people desperately need. Without the ability to recharge your batteries for a long period of time, you’re on a slippery slope to burnout.

6. Create fond memories with the people you love. Don’t ignore your family in favor of earning a living. Create positive experiences that stir their emotions and will therefore impact them, so they’ll remember the good times.

7. Have a regular “family time” with loved ones. The traditions you share with your family are important ways to nurture and express your love for the important people in your life, and to create those fond memories that make you a family.

8. Make time for a favorite hobby. Having a hobby is a great way to re-energize. Whether you like to knit, create scrapbooks, or design clothes, do something regularly. Make time for it. Hobbies are a wonderful outlet for the creative expression missing in many people’s lives.

9. Force yourself to slow down and stop rushing around. Time management doesn’t mean packing your day like a moving van, ensuring every single minute is full. What’s really at issue is not the quantity of time, but its texture.

10. Take care of yourself on a regular basis. This doesn’t just mean going to the doctor and dentist regularly. Reconnect with your childhood, keep up an active social life, pamper yourself occasionally, and don’t feel guilty about downtime.

Some people may perceive playing to be frivolous, but they’re missing the point. You need occasional periods of recreation in order to avoid burn-out and to keep caring about what you’re doing with your life. Slow down and smell the flowers occasionally! Play is more than something “extra” — it’s the ultimate pillar on which your life rests.

The end of the year is a classic opportunity to look back over how things have been going and look forward to see how they could improve. January brings that fresh start that we all long for – let’s make the most of it!

Think of all the things that drive you crazy – the biggest obstacles to your personal and professional productivity. For sanity’s sake, you might have chosen to pick your battles and resigned yourself to some pretty ridiculous productivity drains over the years.

Maybe you decided that a staff meeting at work will always be a waste of time and have given up the good fight on making it better. Or it might be as simple as giving up on making it out the door with a decent breakfast in your belly.

Not this year! Let’s take 2008 by storm and reexamine the way we get things done. Who knows? You just might make some headway on an issue that you thought was a lost cause years ago. Here are some things to think about as you consider how to make 2008 your most productive year ever.

Challenge the status quo. Does it have to be done like this? Many people don’t like change. You might not be particularly fond of it yourself. But that’s no reason to stay stuck in an unproductive rut. All too often, we resign ourselves that it’s “good enough” and get hung up on a really mediocre way of doing something.

Is there a recurring meeting at work that makes everyone groan and hasn’t been worth the hour that it eats up for as long as you can remember?

Maybe it is time to reconsider the way that time is spent. If you have any say in how the meeting is run, perhaps your group’s resolution should be to get the thing back on target. Or maybe it’s simply time to get rid of the meeting altogether and give everyone involved a little extra time in their day – a precious thing indeed.

There are lots of examples of this sort of thing: status reports that no one reads, useless reports, inefficient paperwork, and time-tracking techniques that never see the light of day. Things like this point to an underlying problem: no one steps up to say “why are we doing this?!?!”

Take a risk. Try something different. Speak up. Especially when it comes to projects that are very large or very critical, people can get uneasy about changing a process. After all, there is a lot at stake and the old way has never failed before. The result can be a clunky, overly-complicated process that has grown into something more difficult and stressful than it needs to be.

Don’t be afraid to take a risk and challenge the old way of doing things. It may be more stressful this time around, but you just might work your way towards a new system that will save tons of time and aggravation later on. Don’t be the one who suffers in silence out of fear of “rocking the boat.” Make some waves!

Work backwards. When you’re reevaluating a process that seems overly complicated, consider working backwards to find a better solution. When you begin at step one, it is too easy to fall right back into familiar patterns and miss the point of what you’re trying to do.

Instead, begin at the end and look back. Start with the final result you would like to achieve and build a new process from there. You’ll be much more likely to discover steps that could be either tweaked or axed altogether. Get your team together armed with pads of sticky notes and challenge yourselves to eliminate several steps.

Structure is your friend. Many of us have jobs that are so process-heavy we forget that having a defined procedure in place is, in the best of circumstances, a really good thing.

Make sure that when you are dealing with a task or an assignment that needs to be done on a recurring basis, you find a way to put a system in place. Especially if you are working in a group, it is important to make sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of who is responsible for what – and when.

A checklist can be a great asset here. Simply list everything that needs to be accomplished and who is responsible for doing it. If your process stalls, you should have no problem figuring out where the problem is.

Measure! If you go on a New Year’s diet, at some point you’re going to step on the scale for an objective look at how things are going. Without a no-nonsense measurement, it is very difficult to gauge your success or failure. It’s hard to improve what you can’t measure. So how would you know if you’ve succeeded?

This is particularly true when it comes to tweaking or creating processes. Keep track of the changes you make and evaluate how they have improved productivity. Did you make the process faster? Does it involve fewer people? Did the quality of the work improve?

These are the questions you’ll want to ask whenever you change something that has been in place for any period of time. If you keep these questions in mind before you make any changes at all, so it can help guide your decision making.

Go for it. It’s going to be a new year, everybody! Let’s not be afraid to take the bull by the horns and tackle the issues that stand between you and your personal or professional productivity.

Make it a productive day! ™

When was the last time you had a really relaxing holiday? I don’t mean that peaceful thirty-minute aftermath that follows a successful dinner party or the kids’ gift-opening extravaganza. I mean a holiday that is relaxing, from beginning to end. That includes travel, dinner preparations, and shopping. All it will take is a little organization and advance planning. Here are some tips to get you started.

Plan your travel now. Need to be out of town to see family or friends? If you haven’t already made arrangements, make it a priority. Especially if you plan to fly, the best deals disappear fast. Get online and start shopping around as soon as you know where you need to be and when. Once the arrangements are made, start getting things squared away with work. Whether you need to request time off, reschedule a recurring meeting, or just let your employees know that you’ll be gone, do it as soon as possible. Depending on where you work, getting holiday time off can be competitive. Especially in this case, the early bird tends to get the worm.

Make a budget. Unless you’ve got more money that you know what to do with, it is easy for the holiday season to turn into a financial headache. Ninety-nine percent of that stress can be eliminated by thinking ahead and making a budget. Financial sanity doesn’t come from having a ton of money; it comes from spending it wisely.

Decide how much you’re going to spend and stick to it. Letting yourself creep over your budget probably isn’t going to make you a hero in the gift department, but it might cost you a gray hair or two when it comes time to sort out the holiday bills. How many times have you charged expensive items and spent five months paying for them? See if you can break tradition this year by drawing names or just sending cards. Tell the people you’re not buying for that you’ve pared down your gift list out of necessity and ask them not to buy for you as well.

Avoid the shopping marathon. Unless you really do enjoy the “shop ‘till you drop” marathon mall sessions, skip the all-day shopping trips. If you start now (or better yet, six months ago), you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done by picking up an item here and there while you’re running your everyday errands. The secret is to sit down, make a list of the people you need to shop for, and keep it with you.

Ideally, your list will include one or two gift options for each person, too. Keep your list with you and cross off a few people every week. Also keep your eye out for stocking stuffers and similar small items. And as for that whole Black Friday thing – if you don’t enjoy it, skip it! Unless shopping is in your blood, the money you’ll save probably isn’t worth the aggravation.

Wrap as you go. Don’t put all of your wrapping off until the last minute. As you pick things up, go ahead and wrap them as soon as you get a chance. Wrap a couple extras for a guest who shows up unexpectedly and gives you a gift. It helps to have a dedicated wrapping area cornered off that is well-stocked with all the essentials – wrapping paper, scissors, gift tags, tape, etc. The easier you make it for yourself, the more likely you are to get it done.

Simplify, simplify. No matter how cool your friends and family might play it, you are NOT the only one who gets stressed out around the holidays. If the stress of preparations is getting out of hand, don’t be afraid to propose a simplified pot-luck dinner instead of a more elaborate affair or a gift exchange instead of shopping for everyone individually. Even if you just try this approach with a small group of friends or extended family, it’ll be at least a small relief for everyone involved. When it comes to reducing you holiday workload, every little bit helps.

Make friends with the Internet. More and more shoppers are finally taking the plunge and skipping the traditional brick and mortar stores completely. Internet shopping has come a long way in the last few years and you might be surprised at how simple it has gotten. You can easily compare prices and can generally find good deals on shipping that will guarantee arrival in plenty of time for the big day.

Play your cards right. Many people take one look at that mound of Christmas cards and can suddenly think of three or four other things that require their immediate attention. We love getting cards but hate the prospect of doing ours. So we procrastinate until December 22 and pull another 2 a.m. shift to get them in the mail by Christmas. So, I look at my cards as a process. Breaking the project down into smaller pieces makes it seem more manageable. You can even begin now! The first thing I do is create the labels.

Second, I stick them on the envelopes with a return address label and stamp. Next, I write the family newsletter and get it copied onto the special paper. Finally, I set up an assembly line: (a) add a salutation to the card such as “Dearest X Family,” (b) sign our names, (c) enclose the newsletter and a picture, and (d) seal the envelope with a sticker. No licking for me! If you prefer to hand-write your cards, the trick is to write five each day, starting the day after Thanksgiving. Take some with you wherever you go, in case you find some free time: at the doctor’s office, waiting for a meeting to begin, or picking your child up from a lesson.

Cheat. Unless you really enjoy preparing mass quantities of food from scratch, there’s no reason not to take advantage of a short-cut or two. Particularly when it comes to the dessert menu, there are plenty of quick and easy mixes that can help you shave some serious time off of your meal preparation schedule. Just go to the grocery store and find a few easy-to-make offerings or buy something from the deli. For a special touch you can dress your desserts with extra holiday sprinkles or a squiggle of chocolate sauce across the plate for a very restaurant-looking presentation.

Give yourself the gift of time. How about purchasing a few months of housekeeping instead of clothes? Purchase a gift certificate to a restaurant so you don’t have to cook. Have the veterinarian groom your dog instead of doing it yourself, being soaked, and making a mess. Buy a book on tape to listen to in the car on the way to work. Purchase a cell phone and eliminate phone tag by forwarding your calls when you leave the office. Have your groceries delivered once a week for a month (less than the cost of a blouse). Hire a teenager to do the major cleaning required before houseguests arrive.

Remember your priorities. Take shortcuts where it really doesn’t matter: buy cookies instead of baking them or barter a task you don’t like for one you do. I know two women who trade chores at holiday time. One hates to bake; the other hates to do crafts. So one woman decorates the other’s home and wraps her presents beautifully; the other does the meal preparation and holiday baking for the other! Cut out as many social engagements as possible if you want more family time—you can’t go to a school musical when it’s more convenient. Kids appreciate happy and relaxed parents more than perfect decorations.

Get moving! However you choose to get a head start on the holiday season, you won’t regret putting in the extra effort early on. Keep yourself motivated by thinking about how nice it will be to cruise through the end of December stress-free and full of holiday spirit. You might make a date with yourself to visit the mall on the last weekend before Christmas—just so you can observe the mayhem you successfully avoided by being so productive!

Make it a productive day! ™

(C) Copyright 2007.