Holiday Planning: From Procrastinator to PRO

It’s early October, and for many that feels unfathomable. How did time fly so fast? It feels like the overwhelming jobs of planning costumes, work parties, travel, hosting relatives, and more… are starting to lurk from the shadows. It’s tempting to wait until at least after Halloween to begin thinking about the many things you have to plan, telling yourself that out of sight means out of mind…but procrastinating can just cause more stress and problems in the future. Instead, go from procrastinator to pro – optimizing the upcoming holiday season with these simple tools:

• Start with a Goal Planning Form to clearly define your event goals, focus on the bigger picture, flesh out expectations, and break it all down into actionable steps with a timeline.
• Don’t lose track of the tasks that span days and weeks. Keep them always in sight and on your mind with the Progressive Task List which moves along with your planning – until you can confidently check them off!
• Don’t rely on sticky notes and random scraps of paper to jot down important brainstorm ideas, notes on gift-giving, travel details, and dietary restrictions for guests. When you need that extra space for the finer details, and the assurance that they won’t get lost, this Universal Satellite Booklet fits in any planner and is a great destination for information.
• Working in collaboration with others? Use the Contact Log or Information Record to track each collaborator and vendor, their roles, assignments, ongoing conversation notes, and follow-up.
• Multi-Day Event? The Menu Planner – Shopping List is a perfect tool for staying on top of this (most important) holiday element – the food!
• Don’t end up in a post-holiday panic, instead track all receipts and expenses as you go with Expense Envelopes!
• The Occasions Forms Pack brings together pages for listing Special Days, a Gift Ideas registry, Party Planner pages, Vacation/Travel planning and checklist, and Holiday/Event Journal pages for reminiscing and optimizing future plans.