November 29, 2006
Planning for Christmas, 2006
Each year, it seems, more and more people get an early start on their Christmas shopping. But I know there are folks out there who, like me, just can't think of Christmas in June. (Personally, I don't even want to see Christmas decorations or start talking about Christmas planning until Thanksgiving dinner has been digested, but that's another story altogether.)
If you know me, you know I'm an incredibly organized person; I'm so organized, in fact, that I've been called "anal retentive" by more than just a few people when it comes to organization. Unsatisfied with how inefficient I've been in years past, I decided to try a different approach to keeping organized during Christmas this year. While hunting for organizational ideas on the internet today, I came across D*I*Y Planner. What an awesome website! It's chock full of homemade planning pages and other organizational tips for people who like to organize their lives on paper (lists, calendars, Day Runners, etc.).
My first search -- Christmas organizational material. Quite handily, D*I*Y Planner offers a holiday planning set. It comes with a master gift list, menu planner, holiday planning calendar, several checklists of common holiday tasks (organization, planning, gifts, cooking, decorating, and celebrating) and a couple of pages for writing down tidbits of info about people you're going to give gifts. The set's creator even offers a short instruction set (a half-dozen paragraphs, or so) on how to most efficiently use the planner.
But the best part? Well, that's easy. It's FREE! In fact, everything on D*I*Y Planner is free. Each sheet or form has been converted the the incredibly handy PDF format. Entire sets, like the holiday planning set, download as compressed ZIP files.
I'm going to try the planner this year and see how I like it. It may take a bit of getting used to because I've relied so heavily on my monthly planners for several years now. Even if I don't use it the way it's intended to be used, at least I'll feel like I'm approaching the Christmas holiday in a more organized fashion.
Posted by Kasey on November 29, 2006 01:45 PM | Filed Under: LifeThis holiday planning set is great, Kasey! Thank you!
I can't seem to get away from paper for some things. I like the portability of paper, room to room, house to purse. Even my PDA isn't as handy as a good ol' piece of paper.
Posted by: Bonnie on November 29, 2006 05:06 PMMy wife (above) is a list maker. I figure if I can't remember something it wasn't worth remembering. I'll resort to list making now that I am getting older and more forgetful though.
Thanks for the link.
Posted by: Bruce on November 30, 2006 05:30 AM