It’s the season of goodwill, the season to be jolly, the season of parties and joy? But Christmas can sometimes leave you feeling like you have no time for yourself or your loved ones, not to mention the ever decreasing bank balance.
So what can you do to manage the festive period without losing your mind?!
Where do you start with Christmas presents?
You’ve been invited to your new boyfriend’s Grandma’s house for Christmas and you have to buy her dog a present?!
Well, to prevent seeing your shiny new presents in the charity shop in the New Year as well as having to re-mortgage your house to pay for it all…why not shop ethically this Christmas. There are many ways to do this as below…
1) Do a family Secret Santa using an online tool such as @drawnames https://www.drawnames.co.uk/ this means you only have to buy one person a present. It also has a great function of a wish list so that you can choose what you’d like with the budget in mind as well.
2) Instead of spending hours writing out Christmas cards and wasting money and paper – why not send an e-card? @smilebox have some great online cards https://www.smilebox.com/maker/card-maker/
3) Simply ask your friends/family/co-workers what they would like or what they actually need this Christmas. It sounds silly but I’m sure most people would prefer to receive something they really need for Christmas instead of something that will go to waste.
4) There’s always the option of a charity present – have a look at money saving options below https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/charity-gifts/
How do you manage your time over Christmas?
It may feel like you’re juggling parties, dinners, work and family commitments with very little time to breathe over the festive period. Are you putting the shower gel in the fridge and the milk in the shower?!
Below are some handy performance coaching tips that will help you to prioritise and keep your cool over this festive period. Performance coaching is all about performing the best you can and to the best of your ability.
Coaching Top Tips
1. Write down everything you need to achieve for that day or week. Number them in order of priority and work through the list starting with number one.
2. Decide if there is anything on the list that actually isn’t that important and can actually wait with little or no impact on anything else and maybe pick that up another month.
3. Think about your ROIs. What are you getting from all the time you are putting in to a certain task? Is it worth it? Is there something that you can spend less time doing? If something is taking more time than something more pressing, how urgent is it and what is your return on investment? Is it worth the amount of time you are committing and investing?
4. Do some self-analysis. Realise your personality type. For example, in DISC training, we learn that certain personality types respond better to certain styles of getting things done. For example, I came out as an ‘I’ on the DISC test. That means I mainly learn by finding the fun in a task so I can get something done when I find it fun. The D characteristic responds well to bullet points and to the point agendas. It might be worth finding out what personality type you lean most towards, so when it comes to getting things done, you can find the most efficient and effective way that you will achieve what you need to do and not procrastinate or feel overwhelmed. The Coaching Academy offer an Introduction to DISC if you are interested in finding out more.
Hope you find at least one thing on here helps with the Christmas period! Have a fabulous festive time folks!
