I’m a bit of an ostrich when it comes to Christmas. My usual game plan is to stick my head in the sand until the looming task of present buying, card writing and other festive activities can’t be ignored. Every year I tell myself this time it will be different. As the author of a task management app I’m going to stop the excuses and get organized for Christmas 2018.
Did you know that in the US 3 billion Christmas cards are sent each year, or that a child in the UK gets on average 16 presents? These things don’t just happen - and if you are like me they wouldn’t happen if there weren’t some Christmas to-do lists created (or a super organized wife which is my usual fall back.)
My sister keeps a complicated gift matrix on her fridge, my wife has her trusty Christmas binder and this year I’ll have beorg on my iPhone.
Christmas, like most projects, has a clear structure and a deadline. The first step is to break it down into some main areas and give each area a completion date. Here is my go at this:
- Advent calendars, 1st December
- Christmas presents, 24th December
- Christmas cards, last posting date in UK is 20th December
- Take toys my kids are too old for to charity shop, 8th December to give people chance to buy them before Christmas
- Son’s Christmas play (he’s four and this is his first one, I’m very excited), 10th December
- Decorations, we usually put these up a week before so 16th December
- Food, 24th December
- Work Christmas party, any time before 21st December
- Who we need to see over Christmas, book in visits by 9th December
Now that I’ve got a structure I can tackle each area in turn and create some doable tasks.
Lets start with decorations.
My acceptance criteria, i.e. how I know I’ve done a good job, will be to have a tree up, mantelpieces decorated and a wreath on the front door.
- Decorations: deadline 2018-12-16
- Go into loft and check state of decorations (including testing lights): 1st December
- Create a list of any decorations which need replacing - and make sure wreath hanger is in good working order: 1st December
- Buy new decorations: 8th December
- Buy wreath (we like to get a real fresh one each year): 8th December
- Put wreath on door: 8th December
- Get decorations, including artificial tree, down from the loft: 15th December
- Fit together tree: 16th December
- Decorate tree with wife and children: 16th December
- Decorate mantelpieces: 16th December
- Put decoration boxes, and any unused decorations back in the loft: 16th December
When creating a list of tasks think carefully how long each one will take. This is a great sanity check for any task list. If you’ve put 10 hours of activities on one day you probably need a rethink. It sounds like obvious advice but it is far too easy to gloss over the reality of how long tasks take and then get upset when stuff doesn’t get done on time.
A task manager which includes an outliner, such as beorg, is great for this kind of thing. You can see all your related tasks in one go and on your agenda.
I’m growing in confidence that by the time I’ve gone through each of the areas and created a bunch of tasks I will be well on my way to being organized for Christmas 2018. With Christmas in beorg, and beorg in my pocket I’m feeling more relaxed already about the upcoming festivities.
Happy Christmas organizing everyone!
Download beorg and get organized for Christmas!
