Alright mama, the holidays are approaching. You’ve already prioritized your holiday to do list, set boundaries around your time and it’s on the calendar. Now what? How do you actually do the holiday thing instead of putting it off?
No saying you’re going to get burnt out! We’ve covered how to avoid holiday burnout. Just click here to review the tips if you need a refresher.
Let’s break down the current thought cycle :
- As a working mom you’re used to doing the job right with minimal mistakes (dang near perfect)
- You have limited time as you look on your work and life calendars
- It’s going to take time to complete the holiday plans the way you want
In a nutshell : You procrastinate following through on the holiday planning and maybe even avoid it because you want it to be perfect and you think the perfection will take up too much of your time. Does that sound about right?
No judgement and you’re not alone!
Move forward in your holiday plans
This post is going to give you some time saving hacks and stress management tips to get you actually making forward steps in your holiday plans.
Get ready to have a successful holiday you can be proud of. Here’s a hint…it’s not going to be perfect and I’ll show you how to be just fine with that.
Being a working mom sure eats up the day doesn’t it? How often do you say you’re going to do something, get all prepped and geared up to do it….and you don’t?
Work and life’s priorities take up a lot of time and they may even be taking away from you planning the perfect holiday.
As a result, you may start to feel like you’re missing out on holidays because you don’t have enough time to do it right or dare I say…. Pinterest worthy.
Ditch the perfection
Yes, this is easier said than done. That’s why you’re getting some time saving hacks to get you following through on your holiday plans…without the perfectionist working mom guilt.
These tips will make it look like you spent a lot of time and still scratch your perfectionist itch without the procrastination.
I don’t believe in putting moms in a box. You may stay at home and your sole work is to raise the kids. That doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate or even enjoy doing other types of work.
Same to us working moms. We may work a 9 to 5, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate or enjoy homemaker work.
What I’m saying is that you deserve to scratch the homemaker itch too and wear other hats besides the working mom one if you want.
Don’t rob yourself of valuable time and experiences because you’re procrastinating due to running after perfection.
Who set these high expectations? Read more about that in the post about how to avoid holiday burnout.
Procrastination – Perfectionism Theory
In order to actually follow through on the below tips it’s bet to understand what’s going on first. I gave a brief overview earlier about the cycle of why you may be procrastinating with holiday plans, but let’s take it a tad bit deeper.
It’s a theory of many called the procrastination – perfectionism loop and shows the relationship between the two. You see, procrastination could be a side effect of perfectionism.
In striving to be perfect, there is often this fear of not being able to meet the standard (which doesn’t exist), so you put it off instead of doing it “wrong”.
This fear you keep building up needs to be reprogrammed to start getting stuff done. Prove to your brain there’s nothing to be afraid of by working through small accomplishments with results. In other words, give it small wins towards the finish line by lowering the standards.
I’ll give some time saving tips to get you through this during the holiday seasons in your life below.
Can you tell I’m speaking from experience? Yep, this is all me right here. These tips have helped me and I hope they help you too.
5 Tips to stop procrastinating holiday plans
1. Just start
Starting is the toughest part when you’re used to procrastinating because you have to break through that fear of failure.
You know how it goes. You just keep waiting on the perfect time to start so you can do it right. The fear is robbing you and wasting time.
No matter how big or small, try breaking the holiday into tasks and work through your priorities worksheet. Even if it’s just 10 minutes.
2. Let go
Let go of so much structure and expectations. Don’t waste time on every little detail. I mean, Pinterest is nice for ideas but don’t compare yourself to someone else’s life’s work.
There’s a show on Netflix about how people try to re-create projects. Don’t get me wrong, they look good but something I noticed was that each person’s turned out different and that’s okay.
Getting stuck in structure, especially someone else’s is a huge time warp. You’ll save time in the long run by letting go, having no comparisons and doing things your way.
That may mean that breakfast becomes brunch so you get to sleep in and only cook twice that day. I low key really like that idea.
3. Appreciate it
You work hard mama. The holidays are your time! Don’t spend them worrying about making it perfect.
Chances are the people in your life just want to see more of you in a non-work element. Embrace it and appreciate it. Take it all in.
Here’s a tip: In an age where we capture every moment on camera, put the camera down! Have a set camera time for yourself. Don’t stress over capturing every moment on film.
You’d be surprised how much richer your experience becomes when you widen your field of vision.
4. What about mama?
What do you really want? How much is for you versus others?
As working moms sometimes we get stuck in believing our self worth is tied to our performance and this is false. It’s also wasting your precious family time.
5. Did you even laugh though?
Make holiday preparations a party! I love making Christmas cookies with my mother.
We make all different kinds and freeze the batter so you get little reminders of Christmas throughout the season.
Storytime : One time I was cooking with a friend and we used salt instead of sugar. OMG the faces we made when we tried to sneak some cookie dough! Still makes me laugh to this day and that was years ago. It wasn’t perfect, but it was funny! We chose to see the humor in it instead of the failure.
Make sure you find time to laugh, even if it’s putting on a comedy special while you cook. It may sound silly, but these are proven techniques to start increasing your happy hormone and create happier thoughts.
As you change your thinking it will go from fear of not getting it done to being okay with doing what you can.
Holiday challenge
There ya have it mama. Permission to let go of the tight to do list and planning. Enjoy some looser, forgiving leisure planning.
Challenge yourself this holiday season. As that procrastination bug tries to bite you I want you to stop and ask yourself a few of questions.
- What are you afraid of?
- What’s the worst that could happen?
- What’s the best that could happen?
After answering these questions and digging into the expectations exercise on this post I think you’ll start to put your thoughts into a much healthier perspective.
Procrastination beyond fear
Did you know that fear of failure is just one driving factor of procrastination? Other common reasons range from feeling burned out, not having clear direction and even fear of change and the list continues.
Anything to add?
What do you think? Sound like a plan? Leave a comment and let me know how you plan to rock your holiday to do list this year.
Do the holidays your way
You know I’m all about helping you manage your time so that you can spend it more on doing things that fill you up and add value to your life.
Use these time saving and stress reducing tips to stop putting off plans that can actually give you quality time spend with friends and family.
PIN THIS POST FOR LATER!
