Here we are just a little while before Christmas and all through the house (and business) everyone is taken with holiday activities buying and wrapping gifts, baking cookies, boughs on the mantle, stocking firewood and the liquor cabinet, attending open houses, finalizing travel arrangements, and on and on. While the holidays are mostly pleasurable they are also stressful and sometimes overwhelming especially when you realize that the needs of managing the business is ongoing. You still need to satisfy your obligations, do outstanding work for your clients, pay your bills and payroll, deal with year-end bonuses, mail your Christmas cards, prepare to close out your books and begin the New Year. How do you balance the needs of all these, sometimes competing, demands on your time and energy?

Obviously this holiday season is pretty much set in place so why not, right now, start preparing to get through next years holiday rush based on the experiences of this year? It starts with basic organizational issues no matter whether you use a digital device or a bunch of notes and lists you throw into a shoebox which you will review later. Make a list on every holiday activity so you will actually enjoy next years company office party, not accept three invitations to social events for the same day, forget to send a gift to a favorite Aunt and remember that you need to buy a little nutmeg to add to your family recipe for eggnog.

Start by creating or modifying your Christmas Card List. Take a few moments to review it quarterly rather than at 2a.m. on December 15th. Create the same organizational approach for each business and personal activity. Make a big note right now on your 2006 calendar (you have one started, right?) to review your holiday plans October 1, 2006 to plan your calendar, adding to various inventories (remember the nutmeg), addressing cards, etc. instead of two weeks before Christmas.

That way you will revel in the holidays and begin the New Year with energy and a smile instead of that Bah Humbug attitude so many people have when the holidays overwhelm them. Enjoy the eggnog!