Top Ten Reasons To Get Organized This Holiday Season

*Do it once, you’ll never have to spend your precious time doing it again. That’s right. Take a bit of time now to go through the entire holiday season step-by-step, one day at a time, organizing your material, recipes and decorations as you go and you’ll have gotten holiday organizing under your belt for good. By the time you enter the New Year, you’ll have all the notes, references, ideas and tools you’ll need in one place, ready for you to use from now on.

*You could create as much as a week of time, a whole week, to do with whatever you want. The average person wastes at least an hour a day looking for things on their desk; multiply that by 8 weeks with added holiday responsibilities and you’ve got a ton of wasted time just on trying to find things alone. Proper time management recaptures time lost in a variety of wasted activities, including such as lost and misplaced articles that force additional work. By taking the time to methodically clear out the clutter and organize your stuff, you could create an extra week of time for yourself this holiday season alone. Keep up the good work, and you’ll save yourself the equivalent of a month off!

* While you’re at it, create yet another week to do with whatever you want. The average person doesn’t just wastes time looking for stuff, he or she also wastes time through unmanaged interruptions. Every time you are interrupted, it takes you between 5 and 25 minutes to recover the focus you had before you were interrupted. When you know that the average American office worker experiences at least 8 interruptions an hour, this means that you’re having just 20 minutes of productive work… Knowing how to minimize interruptions, both in number and in length, you could easily create another week of time this holiday season to do with what you wish – and many more weeks of free time through the year next year.

*Reduce as much as one-third of the unnecessary stress you unwittingly accept into your life. According to the American Psychologists Association, Americans list “lack of time” as accounting for 34% of their overall stress during the holidays. The fact is that proper time management can virtually make this sense of overwhelm and stress simply a thing of the past.

* Nab a promotion or better bonus. Unfair but true: executives are more likely to hire someone whose desk is clear over someone whose desk is messy, even if the messy person is just as qualified. And this counts double for time management. Being organized having a clear desk and meeting all your deadlines effortlessly is key to getting the promotion or bonus you want. No, it’s not too late to make it happen. If you don’t get your reward this year still, you are sure to reap the rewards of your new-found skills next year.

*Save money on gifts, supplies, decorations and necessities. How can managing your time save you money on shopping? Simple. By having your time under your conscious control, you can easily take advantage of the special deals and offers made at various times throughout the season. Also, with a clearer head as a result of less=2 0stress, making your list and checking it twice will render a more thorough shopping list making for far more productive trips, and less of them. Saving in gas and price specials are just some of the savings you’ll realize. And the more organized you are, the less apt you are to make unnecessary duplicate purchases. The ways you can save by just being organized are endless.

*Get to Do Things “Right.” We all have a certain way we like to do things, a way that we feel is the right way, especially for our holiday traditions. When we’re disorganized and don’t have enough time, we have to cut corners and leave things out entirely. Pile the lack of time, and lack of enjoying properly executed traditions on top of all your other stresses and the enjoyment is sucked right out of any holiday. With the time you’ll save by managing your time and organizing your things properly, you’ll once again be able to do things the way you and your family like them. You can take special care with homemade gifts, put more of yourself into your holiday decor and make sure all the little things that say “I love you” are included in every moment of your holiday, for yourself and your loved ones.

*Try the new and refine the old. Just because something is a family tradition doesn’t mean it’s the way you’d like. But without enough time to get the basics accomplished, who has time to experiment? With the additional time you’ll have made for yourself, you can finally take the time to get things just so. Test out new recipes, refine old ones. Put extra effort into twisting the garland in an intricate design, or laying the tinsel on one strand at a time. Whatever has never been “just so” has always been a little irksome which over time is very draining, and stressful. The holidays come around just once a year, which means we tend to pay attention to things around us more at this time. As you gain control of your schedule, you’ll be able to make the things you experience this holiday more pleasing to you and your family.

* Be ready for the new year. With the time you’ve saved, you’ll also be able to ensure that you finish all you needed and wanted to do this season, and have time to spare to organize the new year. You will reach the end of the year relaxed, in control, calm. You will know you are on top of things. But most importantly, all the skills you learn by getting organized now will transfer into the new year, and make it your most amazing year yet.

* Truly enjoy the holidays. Last but not least, getting organized this holiday season will allow you to actually, really enjoy the holidays, with energy to spare. No more feeling drained, as if you had just run a marathon and the holidays are the finish line, and having your mind swirl with all the things you still need to do even while you’re at a celebration. Instead, you’ll be ready to fully live the moment, enjoy yourself, have fun and dance the night away on New Year’s Eve.