Holiday Preparations

I want to share a little trick for cutting down on the stress of the holidays: Do less. Thanks so much, you're thinking. But don't quit on me now. I'm a list-maker. It keeps me focused. Or as I like to call it, sane. So that's how I tackled Christmas. A list of desserts to bake, the dinner menu, gifts to buy, and lastly, things around the house I've put off and would like to do before company comes. It was massive and often more of a Wish List than a To Do List. I would start right after Thanksgiving, so I had about four weeks to accomplish all of it. In my younger days, I threw myself into the work, always with some success. But at some point, I had to admit I was running out of time. The list was too long. It took a lot of time that I didn't have to ponder the worthiness of each item. One day in total frustration I just tore the thing in half. I'm talking side-to-side, not top to bottom. I figured I had written down the most important things first anyway. As the big day approached and I found I was still far behind, I tore off the bottom half again. I highly recommend this system. Then decide that you're satisfied with whatever you got done and forget the rest. To quote a famous animated character, "Let it go." It works. As an example, I had more in my notes to write about this topic, but in order to finish on time, I had to tear ...