Musing today on what to write about for today’s blog article, I realised that my theme today seemed to have been making myself do things in order to make the next few days less stressed.
On Saturday, I plan to do a ‘mop-up’ shop to buy a few outstanding presents and stocking fillers as well as extra Christmas cards and stamps. In order to make the most of the day, I needed to check what I had bought for my children’s stockings to date and make a note of any gaps. This meant unpacking the Christmas shopping bags from last Saturday that had been left untouched in a week of illnesses, car issues and general busyness.
My other main task on Saturday is to send off cards and presents to our relatives in Germany. The presents were bought last Saturday but not wrapped and the cards still needed writing.
As I am at work all day tomorrow and out watching my son’s school play tomorrow night, I knew that Friday was a non-starter for a mop-up planning session. I could get up really early and sort it all out on Saturday morning said my procrastinating self. But then I thought through what that actually meant and realised that, in reality, I would end up rushing out the door on Saturday morning to make sure of a parking place, half-formed ideas in my head and a sketchy shopping list. And probably with the presents for Germany stuffed in a bag to be wrapped and packed in a coffee shop somewhere before rushing to the Post Office where a large queue would have had a chance to form! Yuk!
Sooooo, I took a deep breath and decided that I had to be nicer to that future, potentially, stressed-out Sally. After all, gasp, she would be me in about 48 hours! I started to think through what Saturday morning Sally would like and realised that she would like a nice orderly shopping list with everything from library books due back to presents and cards for Germany waiting calmly for her by the front door on Saturday morning.
So I forced myself to do something towards helping out Saturday Sally. I started by wrapping the presents for our niece and nephew in Germany. My daughter was off sick but feeling a bit better and she helped by writing the tags and adding some ribbons. We even managed to wrap a present for another nephew before we had to clear away before we went to pick up my son from school.
While my daughter was decorating the last present, I wrote out the Christmas cards for Germany which we then both signed and I got my husband and son to sign when they came home. I will buy large jiffy bags on my way to work on Friday and will package up the presents when we get back from the play. Everything for Germany is now in a large carrier bag in the hall, ready for Saturday.
This evening, I have gone through all the Christmas shopping bags, divided stocking fillers into separate bags for each child and hidden them (I hope!). I have made notes on what else I need to buy as well as the other few presents I need. I also added a trip to the Library and some items my son needs from M&S.
I can now forget about organising the Saturday shopping trip (apart from putting the presents into jiffy bags of course!) and it is one less item racing around in my overcrowded brain. Such a relief.
So to all my fellow procrastinators out there, be really nice to your future self and DO something to help s/he now – s/he’ll love you for it!
