A lot of people find this time of year overwhelming. Add gift buying, sending Christmas cards, decorating, cooking, and entertaining and it’s too much to an already busy schedule. Julie Fast, author of Getting It Done When You’re Depressed, recommends writing out the steps you need to take to finish a project and include the time you think each task will take. You’ll find things usually take a lot less time than you estimated. She says, “Everything feels impossible if you look at it as a whole instead of as a process with individual steps. In reality, the steps are all that matter, especially when you’re depressed.”
I find women have a really difficult time saying “no” especially at this time of year. Force yourself to say, “Let me think about your request and get back to you.” Give yourself time to think and consider the request. If you make this a habit, you’ll find yourself only taking on the tasks that you have time for and enjoy instead of those that cause more stress and add to your feelings of overwhelm. This applies to all the things you think you need to get done before Christmas. What would be the consequences if you didn’t send out cards this year, or only made one or two types of cookies instead of five or six? What if you used kraft paper to wrap all your gifts instead of three or four different types of wrapping paper? It might be helpful to pick one source for all your Christmas shopping instead of spending so much time going from store to store.
Be careful to finish one project at a time. You will feel better when you finish a task instead of many partially started projects. You don’t need to be Martha Stewart and your home doesn’t need to look like those in the magazines.
Is your family happy? Are you focused on the true meaning of Christmas? Isn’t that enough?
