How to Mindfully Organize Your Holiday Schedule

We all want the holidays to be so many amazing things for so many amazing people in our lives (and the not so amazing ones, too). We also are usually bending over backward to make the holiday magical even if we feel exhausted.

Do you ever have a Cinderella moment during the holidays? 

You hurry to get all the cooking, cleaning, washing, gift buying, baking and running around done, so you can show up at a magical ball (holiday party) or Christmas morning, only to feel like you’ve lost a shoe and just want to take a nap? Isn’t this special time supposed to be more than stress, self-loathing and resentment?

Let’s face it, Cinderella had a fairy godmother and some magical mice. 

You don’t have those, but you do have the power to make it a more magical Christmas for yourself and those around you. Following these real tips and tricks will help you have a mindful holiday season that doesn’t leave you feeling exhausted, stressed and rejecting carolers at your door. 

Multitasking is a myth. Science shows that your brain doesn’t multitask, but instead, continually switches between tasks. This slows everything down and it makes our brains become less able to focus because we constantly train it to be frenzied, which leads to stress. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this article so you get the download link to all of these printables!

Make a list of all the things you want to DO over the holidays. 

That’s right, all of them. Then write a list of all the things you need to do (shopping, cleaning, volunteering, etc.). Include kiddo concerts, holiday parties, movies you want to watch, etc. Feel free to print my FREE holiday organizer sheets below to help, or just use whatever paper is right by you.

I started doing this a few years ago, and it changed my life. My expectations and self-deprecating thoughts of not “being enough” at the holidays to make everything magical for everyone I know went away. Let me be clear, taking 10-15 minutes to do this will save you hours of strife, stress and beating yourself up over the holidays.

Make a quick list of how you want to FEEL during the holidays. Close your eyes and think of how it would look and feel if you were nailing all the holiday hoopla. All the decisions we make involve emotion, so let’s set our emotional intentions first thing. Write those in the emotional intention box on the top of the category sheet. 

Color code the list into three categories: 

• Must be done

• Want to do

• Fluffy fun that may or may not get done. 

Kids’ holiday concerts to me go under ‘must be done’ list. (Yes, I want to do them too, but my mom must is to make those, so they go under must be done) In the ‘want to do’ category, I would put holiday lights. It’s our family tradition to pile in the car with hot cocoa and candy canes and go drive through our light show. A ‘Fluffy Fun’ would be watching the movie Elf with my family. I love that movie, and it would be dreamy to all sit in our pajamas and watch it, but if I can’t get to it, it won’t make or break my holiday. Watching White Christmas, on the other hand, goes on my ‘want-to-do list.

Next, scan the list. 

Take a deep breath and be self-reflective and really mindful. Is there anything you can or want to take off your ‘must be done’ or ‘want-to-do’ list? Can something move over to the ‘fluffy fun’ list? Just like Marie Kondo asks us to hold clothes and see if they spark joy, I want you to look at each thing on the first two lists and see if it fills you with joy or dread. Anything that is dread-inducing that can be moved should be moved. Or they should at least evaluated to see if there is an alternative way to do it, so it isn’t so dreadful. 

For me, it’s holiday shopping. I love gift-giving, but I hate going into crowded stores and walking around aimlessly, trying to pick the perfect gift. I had been doing this for years before I finally told myself to do it all online. During the holidays, I don’t even like grocery shopping (I actually like to do it at other times of the year). Choosing to do it online during the holidays decreases my stress and to-do load by a bunch. Duh right, but here was the key. I was rushing through online buying as though I was rushing through a store, throwing things in my online carts in a frenzied mode, which was not a good look for my budget or my brain. 

Start plugging in the ‘must be done’ items. 

Now that everything is sorted (ahhhh, your brain is already thanking you), print out my holiday planning calendar and start plugging in the ‘must be done’ items. I love to use different colors for my must, wants and fluffy stuff. With the ‘must be done’s, be mindful of deadlines. Also, think of anything that could go along with that item and schedule that in, too. THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. 

For example, I put kiddo holiday concerts on the schedule. Then, I think about the things that lead up to that, like picking out clothes, ironing, baths and showers, haircuts before the holidays, making cookies for the post-show, etc., I schedule ALL that in, too. This is the stuff that drags us down, all the little things that we don’t think of that takes more time than the concert itself. Schedule it all in and write down your estimated time for doing it. For instance, baths or showers usually don’t take that long. Still, for a holiday concert, that means blow-drying and curling kiddo hair, which in all honesty adds a good 45 minutes into my day. But if I have it scheduled, I now will know that I can’t also bake 12 dozen cookies that same evening, and I will back cookie baking up to the day before. Make sense?

If you have a partner, see things that you need him or her to help with (for me, it would be ironing), put a ‘D’ next to that item, so you remember to delegate it out. Delegating is great and necessary, but people being delegated to do much better on the follow-through if given a thorough heads up. Giving more than a few moments before you need it saves hurt feelings, eye-rolling and lots of frantic yelling that you are doing EVERYTHING.

Next up is the ‘want-to-do’ items. 

Look at the calendar, is it already jam-packed? Then you are going to have to limit some ‘want to do’ items. Remember, we want to feel less stress, so we have to be mindful of how much we have on our plates.

Here is a key to the ‘want-to-do’ list. Sit down with your family, give them the ‘want to do’ items that include them and ask them to order their top 3 as a group. Sometimes we spin our wheels over things our family could care less about. Let’s make sure we don’t do that this year. For me, this was our local holiday parade. We had been doing it since they were toddlers, so I just kept putting it on the ‘want-to-do’ list. When I asked them to order their list, no one even had it in their top 5. It was near and dear to my heart, but my entire family could care less. I decided to keep it as a memory in my heart and move onto embracing things that we all felt mattered.

When you have gathered the top 3’s from your family, go ahead and plug those in the calendar. Then go plug in the next three from the ‘want-to-do’ list, being mindful of how long each activity takes, looking at all the lead-ups to the item. We want to make gingerbread houses, so I need to schedule that and time to go get all the ingredients.

You have added six total ‘want to do’s to your list: three family ones and three you find important. 

Move the rest to the ‘fluff’ list. 

Anything past six holidays ‘wants to do’s is Fluffy stuff. You have already determined your most important, and this is how we keep ourselves from being overloaded. We have to get our priorities in order so we don’t overwhelm ourselves or our brains. We are mindful of what is truly important. If I have a fun holiday party on my ‘want-to-do’ list, but it just didn’t make my top six, it’s not something that I genuinely find that important. Therefore, I need to categorize it like this: If I get to do it, great, but if I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I give myself permission to cut it out. Since I already asked my family and have my ‘must do’s done, it can be skipped. This ensures I am a mentally healthy, present part of the holiday for myself and those I love.

Add one final thing to your list. 

Hear me out. I am going to ask you to add one thing to boost your brain and keep your head clear and focused this season. It takes about three minutes, and it will help keep you mentally healthy during the holidays. Print out my Holiday Mindful 5 To Thrive and plan it in your schedule every day.

This is how we stay sane during the holidays. We assess the most important things and we plan for them. Then, we allow anything extra to be something we choose for enjoyment, but not feel pressure or expectation to do. Or, we (gasp) let it go and take a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of having our priorities aligned with our vision of how we want our holiday to feel.