Plan ahead using a calendar (Day 11 of 31 days to take the Stress out of Christmas

 This post is part of a series – “31 days to take the Stress out of Christmas”.  You can read all the posts in the series here.  And to make sure you don’t miss a post you can subscribe to have every post delivered to your inbox, or follow me on facebook.

Planning… and planning ahead.  That is one way to help take the stress out of anything.I know one of the major things I am going to work on this year in striving to have a stress-free Christmas is to create and then stick very close to my calendar and to-do lists.  I strive to be paper-free as much as possible just for my sanity and I use and LOVE Google calendar.  It syncs from my phone to my computer and I can add/edit events on either one.  I use it keep track of EVERYTHING from doctor appointments, nursery schedule at church, blog posts, blog deadlines, birthdays, activities – everything.  I can set reminders to alert me on my phone a day or week or hours before the event.  I don’t use a paper calendar for planning at all.  Althought I do have a paper calendar hanging on my fridge just for date references but I don’t schedule anything on it.

BUT, for Christmas and honestly the months of November and December I think I am going to print out a calendar and write down every event on it and put it on the fridge.  That way my husband and I both see it and I think seeing it 3 times (ahem… or more!) a day will help too.  There are SOOO many extra events in December that really can add to the stress – Christmas programs, Christmas parties, celebrating Christmas with different parts of family and then add to that all the extra things that need to get done too – pictures, cards, gifts, baking.  Having it all laid out on a calendar should help allow for more planning ahead.

What kind of calendar do you keep?  Do you do it all online?  On a calendar on the fridge or a small day planner in your purse?

If you would like a printable calendar to use for months of November/December here’s a few for you.

Download this set at IHeart Organizing.

And here’s another one at The Scrap Shop

And you can also do a google search and come up with a lot of other free printables.

Here’s the one I printed out.

So you have homework for today!  Sit down and fill out (either online or on a paper calendar) all the events you already know about in November/December.  This may also prompt you to go ahead schedule a few things too – when will you have your annual Christmas party, get pictures done, celebrate Christmas with your in-laws?  Then as more events come to light make sure they all get added to your master calendar.