How to Craft Your Holiday Values For A More Meaningful Christmas Season [Episode 4]

Heidi  0:04

Welcome to the Holiday Headstart Podcast, where we get intentional about keeping overwhelmed to the curb and bringing the joy back to your holidays, and every day. I’m Heidi.

 

Emily  0:15

And I’m Emily. We’re two sisters and former elementary school teachers who’ve taken the simple strategies and practical tips we mastered in the classroom and put them to work in our personal lives.

 

Heidi  0:27

And we’re here to help you do the same. Join us each week as we share how, with a little planning and a little prep, you can ensure that the days that make life special don’t become the days that make you stressed.

 

Emily  0:39

You can check out the show notes at theholidayheadstart.com. Ready to get a head start on your holidays? Let’s go.

 

Heidi  0:50

Hey there, friends, welcome back to the Holiday Headstart Podcast. Today we are talking about the importance of starting your planning with a solid foundation. But first, we have a spotlight on one of our favorite fall traditions.

 

Emily  1:04

Traditions are so powerful, whether they’re family customs handed down from our grandparents or brand new creations, traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life.

 

Heidi  1:18

This week, we are sharing one of our favorite traditions, which is driving up the canyon to see the leaves. This is one we grew up with, and once the leaves change, we would pack some sandwiches for dinner one night and then just drive on up the canyon for a little picnic.

 

Emily  1:32

And it was even better the times that our mom made the railroad sandwich. Do you remember this, Heidi?

 

Heidi  1:37

Oh, yes, absolutely.

 

Emily  1:38

I don’t remember what was actually on this sandwich, but I know it was on a loaf of french bread because it was like long. It would get wrapped up and then we’d all sit on it in the back of the station. And I have no idea where this even came from. I think my mom said it came from some cookbook she had, but it’s such a fun memory for me. The sitting on the sandwhich was just as fun and memorable as like, going up and doing this easy little drive. It just absolutely delighted me that we sat on our dinner.

 

Heidi  2:08

And when I have tried to tell people about this, nobody believes me that this was a thing.

 

Emily  2:13

I know everyone listening right now is probably horrified, and I don’t even know what the purpose of smashing it like that was.

 

Heidi  2:19

I think it’s to make it easier to eat. So the idea is, like, if you’re traveling by railroad, like, back in the day, the kids would sit on the sandwich to make it flat so that, you know when it was time to eat, you weren’t making such a huge mess because you’re stuck on this train. You don’t have any way to, like, clean up or, you know.

 

Emily  2:35

That would make sense.

 

Heidi  2:37

So we would sit on the sandwich to make it flat, and it was wrapped up really well. It was wrapped up in towels and plastic wrap, and…

 

Emily  2:45

There was a lot of distance between our bottoms and this sandwich.

 

Heidi  2:50

But yeah, I noticed it’s not something you’ve had your kids do, Emily.

 

Emily  2:54

Well, to be fair, none of them really like sandwiches that much. And also, I don’t know what was on it, like, I don’t know if what was on the railroad sandwich was special, or if it was just the fact that it was a sandwich that you sit on that I don’t know.

 

Heidi  3:07

I don’t think it was anything special. Just cold cuts and lettuce and tomato.

 

Emily  3:11

Well, I also don’t have a station wagon with like, a long row I can pile them onto. But who knows, maybe we’ll try it this year.

 

Heidi  3:19

I think this is such a good reminder that traditions don’t have to be big productions to be meaningful. You know, it was flat sandwiches, a 30 minute road trip and, you know, throwing some rocks in the river, and we just thought it was magic.

 

Emily  3:31

Yeah. We’d love to hear about your favorite fall traditions. Come join the conversation over on Instagram at the Holiday Headstart.

 

Heidi  3:41

Well, hello, dear listener. If you listen to our first three episodes, you might have noticed a few references to Easter and spring.

 

Emily  3:51

And you may be wondering what that is all about. Well, we can clear up the confusion by saying we really tried. We tried so hard to launch this podcast much earlier this year. In fact, we recorded the first three episodes, but that is as far as we got.

 

Heidi  4:09

We had other work responsibilities that we needed to manage before we could give this new project the attention it deserves. So you know, six months later, we are right on track.

 

Emily  4:19

Hey, better late than never, right?

 

Emily  4:22

The person I was in the spring was maybe too optimistic about how things would shake out, but the most important rule of planning ahead is to be flexible. As nice as it would be, to have a guarantee that our well-laid plans will always turn out as we expect them to. That’s just not real life.

 

Heidi  4:40

And it might be easy to think that that would mean it’s not worth planning ahead, but the point of planning isn’t to make the future perfect. It’s to give us the support that we need in order to pivot without toppling.

 

Emily  4:53

If we haven’t laid any groundwork ahead of time, when the unexpected crops up, we have nothing to fall back on. We’re left scrambling for a new way forward or abandoning our plans altogether.

 

Heidi  5:04

There are definitely situations that life throws at us that no amount of planning ahead can prepare us for, but Christmas is not one of those times.

 

Emily  5:12

So what do we do? A lot of people, mostly women, let’s be honest, would love to plan ahead for Christmas, but they don’t know where to start.

 

Heidi  5:21

I have given this a lot of thought, and I think the place to start is always with the why. Why are you doing what you’re doing now, if I were giving you a PowerPoint presentation, this is the moment I would click over to my pyramid slide. So, if you don’t mind playing along, picture a colorful pyramid drawing with three tiers. The base is labeled Why. This is the foundation of the pyramid for a reason. If we don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing, we are just being busy for the sake of being busy.

 

Heidi  5:53

The middle tier is labeled What. This is where the To Do lists come in. You know the To Do lists? What are our traditions? What cookies do we bake? What kind of cards do we send? What do we do on Christmas Eve? And then the tippy top tier of our pyramid is labeled How. How are we putting these plans into place? How are we getting all of these tasks done? Those three tiers work together to help us move from the big abstract questions like, why am I celebrating Christmas this way, to the very specific questions like, How are we getting to Aunt Joanie’s holiday buffet at 4pm on December 24.

 

Emily  6:28

If you’ve ever shopped for a Christmas planner, you know that they tend to focus on the What. They include lots of pages of checklists, but checklists on their own are like the middle tier of a pyramid. Without a supportive base and a focal point on top, it’s just sitting there.

 

Emily  6:46

It’s the same with your planning, without an idea of what tasks are moving you closer to the goal of your why, and without having a plan for how to complete those essential tasks, you’re left running around, not sure if you’re doing the right things and not doing anything in an efficient way.

 

Heidi  7:03

And that is why Emily and I did not make a Christmas planner. We made a Christmas playbook. Oh, that’s a really good air horn.

 

Emily  7:13

Thank you.

 

Heidi  7:15

We start in our playbook by figuring out our why, so we can prioritize what’s important before we lose ourselves in the sea of holiday possibilities and obligations.

 

Emily  7:26

So the holiday Headstart Playbook has 10 sections. Each one deals with an important facet of holiday preparation. Since we always want to start with our Why, today we’re going to start by talking about the why section of the playbook called our red noses. Please explain that name, Heidi.

 

Heidi  7:45

Well, as I started putting this together, because remember, at the time I was just putting this together for me, I needed some tools to help me focus on my why, because I realized that my planning was so scattered. And since the purpose of these resources was to help guide my way forward. I started calling them my red noses, because they’re like Rudolph’s red nose guiding Santa’s sleigh through the fog so that everyone can have a happy Christmas.

 

Heidi  8:11

And then after a while, I I got attached the name. I didn’t even blink. It just became part of my planning. So I’m sticking with it, and I hope that you can adjust to it.

 

Emily  8:21

And as a side note, the holiday Head Start playbook is completely editable. So if you are not vibing with the red nose name, or if there’s anything else you don’t like, you can totally edit it in any way that you want.

 

Heidi  8:34

But of course, you don’t want to get rid of the red nose name, especially when you see how helpful your red noses are. So Emily is going to be our guinea pig. I’ve got Mr. Burns hands here with my planning, and we’re going to walk through a few of the key red nose exercises from the Holiday Headstart Playbook. Are you ready, Emily?

 

Emily  8:57

Ready or not!

 

Heidi  8:59

Okay, so there are several pages of our red noses, but we are going to start with the crucial ones that are foundational to everything that’s going to follow. If you look at the other pages in our playbook, you’ll notice that we reference what we’re doing right now quite a bit. So these are important things to make sure that you get done.

 

Emily  9:17

Yeah, you can’t skip this part.

 

Heidi  9:20

Okay, so Emily, we are starting with the values exercise. So this has three steps. Step one is to identify your values. Step two is to group your values, and step three is to identify your core holiday values. And I promise this is way easier than it sounds.

 

Emily  9:36

Yes, it’s not like I had to come up with the values off the top of my head. You have a long list of words here that I could go through and look for the ones that jumped out to me as like, Oh yes, I think that matches what I want Christmas to feel like.

 

Heidi  9:51

So what are some of the values that you picked, Emily?

 

Heidi  9:54

I picked a lot, I’ll be honest, but some of them that jumped out to me were abundance, connection, delight, magic, enjoyment, intentional, tradition, light. Those are some of the ones that jumped out to me. Oh, and wonder.

 

Heidi  10:11

Oh, see, those are all delightful. Okay, so then step two was to start putting things into groups. Did you find that there were any words that kind of went together for you?

 

Emily  10:21

Yeah, overall, I felt like I could group them into about like four different groups.

 

Heidi  10:27

Okay, well, then this makes it easy. So what groups did you end up with?

 

Emily  10:30

It was easy and hard to group these, because I felt like some of these words could easily be in any of these groups as I started doing it. But here’s how I ended up grouping it is the first set was sort of how I want us to feel. And so it’s like happiness, fun, enjoyment, joy, love, cheerfulness was my first one.

 

Heidi  10:52

Okay, that makes sense. I can see those going together. And as you pointed out, this is really open ended, so it can go any way you want. And it’s important to note, there’s no right or wrong. So we’re going on vibes.

 

Emily  11:02

Yes. So for my second one, I grouped them, sort of what I would call the Holiday Sparkle, is sort of like, these are the words I think of because to me, when I think of the holidays, I think of it as, like, twinkle lights.

 

Heidi  11:16

Oh, I love that.

 

Emily  11:17

When I like envision my home at Christmastime. That’s sort of what I’m picturing. And so the words for me that fell into that group were magic, wonder, light, abundance, delight, enthusiasm and energy.

 

Heidi  11:30

Ooh, those are all great words.

 

Emily  11:32

I know. The problem is that there’s so many good words on this list. It was like, I want them all. Maybe that’s where abundance comes in.

 

Heidi  11:39

This is the hard part. I don’t think I would have put those words together myself, but then seeing how you group them together, I can totally see the connection there. So this is so fun to get to peek inside your brain a little bit.

 

Emily  11:51

And I did start with some of these mixed in other categories, and then I moved them back into this one. As I went, I was like, wait a minute, actually, I think I put these together. So yeah, it’s kind of interesting how it shakes out.

 

Heidi  12:03

Okay, what’s your third group?

 

Emily  12:05

So my third one is all things related to how I feel about having faith incorporated to our Christmas and also about how it feels to me when I think about that part of our Christmas tradition. So that’s faith, kindness, Christ-like, intentional compassion, giving, calm, belief.

 

Heidi  12:27

I love all of them. It’s so hard to narrow down. Okay, but then you’ve got a fourth group.

 

Emily  12:33

My fourth group is probably the most important one, and that’s family, tradition, home, connection, future generations, love, and memories. I added memories, by the way, that wasn’t on the list, so maybe we should add it to the list.

 

Heidi  12:47

I can. Yeah, I will make a note of that.

 

Heidi  12:51

Okay, so then the next step is to try and find a word that capsulates that whole category, and that will become the word that we’re going to call your core value. So were you able to find a word to summarize each of those categories?

 

Emily  13:07

Yes. So for the first category, I picked that one to be joy.

 

Heidi  13:12

Oh, yes, I love it.

 

Emily  13:13

For the second one, I put magic. But now that we’ve been talking, I wonder if I should switch it to sparkle.

 

Heidi  13:18

I think sparkle!

 

Emily  13:19

I kind of think that’s and that’s also our elfs name, so that’s kind of…

 

Heidi  13:23

That’s perfect.

 

Emily  13:25

Okay. And then my third one was faith, and my fourth one was family. So not particularly exciting, but that is that encapsulates it.

 

Heidi  13:34

That is it. That’s right there, okay.

 

Emily  13:36

Although partly family is correct, but I also kind of wonder if it’s more tradition is what it is that I like, I really care a lot about our holiday tradition, so maybe family is obviously encapsulated in that, that’s the whole point of tradition. So maybe I’ll change my core value four to tradition instead of family.

 

Heidi  13:54

Okay, okay, so then, all right, give us your final, final list that you can change at any point.

 

Emily  14:00

And maybe I will later in this conversation, Joy sparkle, faith tradition.

 

Heidi  14:06

Oh, I love it. That’s so exciting. I’ve got, I’m just grinning from ear to ear. This is so fun.

 

Emily  14:11

You have holiday goosebumps?

 

Heidi  14:13

Yes, sparkles, I’ve got sparkles.

 

Heidi  14:15

Okay, so now we are going to keep these values in mind, and we’re going to move to move to the second exercise, which is my holiday purpose. And this is something that I have found to be so helpful for me. The idea is to write a purpose statement that encapsulates what kind of impact you want the holidays to have on your life and the wider life of your loved ones. And the point of having this is to help you make decisions. So as you’re going through your holiday planning, you can say, Does this activity, does this idea, does this opportunity align with my purpose statement? And if it’s a no, then you know that it is not worth your time or energy. And if it’s a yes, you know that that is something that’s going to help support your positive experience of the holidays.

 

Heidi  15:05

So to help you write a purpose statement, we have some guiding questions. So the first one is, what do you do? And so the idea is to list the verbs of your holiday prep. So, Emily, what’s some of your holiday prep verbs?

 

Emily  15:18

Oh, all the all the basic things of decorating, baking, planning, cleaning, shopping, slowing down, that kind of thing.

 

Heidi  15:28

Oh, that’s a good one. Wrapping, yes, all those things. Okay. And then the second question is, who are the people that you’re doing it for? I’m gonna guess that your kids made the list.

 

Emily  15:36

Yep.

 

Heidi  15:37

Maybe your favorite sister?

 

Emily  15:39

Yes, and I host my whole our whole family on Christmas morning, and so that’s part of how I plan certain parts of our holiday, as well as with everyone else in mind too, of what will make everyone comfortable and happy.

 

Heidi  15:54

It’s so important to consider. And I hope you added yourself to the list as well.

 

Emily  15:57

I sure did.

 

Heidi  15:58

Oh, good job. Okay, so the next question is, what value does Christmas add to your life and the lives of your loved ones? That’s kind of a big question.

 

Emily  16:09

Yeah, the first two questions were easier for me to answer. I kind of got a little stuck on what I was supposed to write in the next three questions.

 

Heidi  16:16

All right, well, maybe I can give you a cheat sheet, because I know we have a lot of the same ideas. So for myself, the question is, what value does Christmas add to your life and the lives of your loved ones? So I added, so on my list I put drawing the family together, honoring the birth of the Savior, shaping identity through family traditions, providing happy memories and offering a richness of experience.

 

Emily  16:40

Ah, it’s perfect.

 

Heidi  16:43

So I basically took all of the aspects of the Christmas profile quiz and just put those in. But they’re all the things I want to have at my Christmas so that worked out.

 

Emily  16:56

Yeah, I love it. That’s pretty accurate for me too.

 

Heidi  16:59

Okay. And then the next question is, what is your highest purpose during this particular Christmas? And this is something that I have changed from year to year as our family needs have changed over the years, but the three that I have are to provide consistency and connection, to make happy memories for the kids, and to maximize the time with the kids while they are still willing to participate.

 

Emily  17:24

It’s true.

 

Heidi  17:25

I know the clocks are running out on that one, but we still get them to do some things, so I’m just gonna enjoy it.

 

Emily  17:31

My teen might think it’s dumb, but she’ll usually go along with it, mostly with a smile.

 

Heidi  17:36

Yes. Okay. And then the next question is, if your purpose is achieved, what will Christmas look like for myself and for others? And so I put that I would have quiet time to ponder the Savior and my relationship with him, that I would be able to offer genuine service, share meaningful time with loved ones, create memories that I can look back on fondly, feel joy, strengthen relationships, share my love with the people that are important to me. Once you start really diving into the possibilities of what a Christmas holiday has to offer, I think there’s a lot of there’s a lot of room there.

 

Emily  18:09

Yes, definitely.

 

Heidi  18:11

Okay, so that’s what happens if your purpose is achieved. And then what will happen if your purpose is not achieved? What would your Christmas look like? Did you have ideas for this one?

 

Emily  18:22

I mean, I had more of, like, rushed, sloppy, half done, because there’s been years where, you know, the tree got up and never got decorated. And then I look back, and it makes me a little sad. And I remember feeling sad at the time of, like, I wish I would have gotten to that, you know, just because there’s been several Decembers where hard things were going on, or one year where I was super sick the whole month, and, you know, it just really impacts things.

 

Emily  18:47

And I know what that looks like and feels like, and I don’t want to repeat it. So I have a pretty specific picture in my mind about what that kind of holiday looks like, because I have lived it before, or parts of it before. So I’m pretty clear on what I don’t want it to look like. I think it’s good that this can help me get more clear on what I do want it to look like and how I’ll know that I met my purpose, if, you know it feels like this at the end.

 

Heidi  19:14

That’s really good to have that non example, to use a teacher term, to help you know what not to do. And I think we’ve all had Christmases like that. I know on my list I’ve got things like running to the store on Christmas Eve for that thing that you forgot, or, you know, triggering a health flare up, or going into debt.

 

Emily  19:33

Yes.

 

Heidi  19:34

You know, feeling disconnected and busy and all of those things that we are trying to avoid by planning ahead. Okay, with all this in mind, were you able to work on your purpose statement at all?

 

Emily  19:43

Yes, and it was hard, because I was tempted to just use the example, because it says pretty much exactly what I would say, but I wrote something slightly different so that I wasn’t just copying your example.

 

Heidi  19:54

Well, the example is the one that’s my own personal.

 

Emily  19:58

So no surprise that it resonates with me as well.

 

Heidi  20:01

So the example on the page is, my purpose is to be intentional about designing a season where enjoying the delights of the holidays brings our family together in meaningful ways. So it follows a pattern of what you do. So being intentional about designing a season, right? How I do it. We’re enjoying the delights of the holidays, and then the benefits from this are to bring our family together. So I use that kind of mathematical formula. We’ll use that loosely.

 

Emily  20:31

Christmas math.

 

Heidi  20:32

Yes. So Emily, what was your purpose statement, that you didn’t cheat from me?

 

Emily  20:37

I did not. Mine is my purpose is to take action with my seasonal plans, so the holidays are filled with memories and good feelings that we will cherish for years to come.

 

Heidi  20:47

Oh, I love it. That’s so good.

 

Emily  20:48

I know, pretty profound.

 

Heidi  20:50

It is!

 

Heidi  20:53

Okay. So as we go through the holiday playbook, you’re gonna see lots of pages that say, put your purpose statement here, and the idea behind that is to make sure that we are always using that as a guide for our decisions. If it doesn’t support our purpose, it is not worth our time, our energy, or our money.

 

Emily  21:12

That was so fun and enlightening for me. Hopefully it’s gotten your wheels turning about your why for your holiday planning. If you want to get your own Holiday Headstart Playbook, you can find it at theholidayheadstart.com/playbook or at the link in our show notes.

 

Heidi  21:29

And we would love to hear where you start with your holiday planning. You can connect with us on Instagram at the Holiday Headstart.

 

Emily  21:37

Now it’s time for a get a head start tip. Each week, we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday planning. This week’s get a head start tip is, schedule time to plan. Tell us more about that, Heidi.

 

Heidi  21:51

Well, maybe this is just something that I need, but I’m gonna just go out on a limb and say that I’m probably not the only one who wants to get ahead on Christmas tasks, but struggles with actually making that happen. I am motivated to get those plans underway, but I always just kind of seem to kick the can down the road.

 

Heidi  22:08

As I’ve tried to figure out why I do that, when obviously, holiday planning is important to me, I’ve realized that my problem is that planning in September or October feels important, but it doesn’t feel urgent. There are probably 10 more things on my to do list that absolutely have to be done today, and rounding up the addresses for my Christmas cards can wait. And after enough weeks, it reaches a point where that non urgent task is now urgent, and then I’m suddenly able to find the time for it. But I would be a lot happier if I didn’t have to rely on panic for motivation.

 

Emily  22:47

Right? I would rather not be ordering my Christmas cards from the minted Black Friday sale at 11:55pm because I needed that deadline to get it done. It’s the worst.

 

Heidi  22:58

Right? So how do we combat this? One thing that has helped me is to schedule holiday planning into my week. I used to have kind of a just try and pick a day once a month, but it’s worked better for me to do an hour on Sundays. I’ve tried to do it on other days of the week. I’ve tried to add it to the calendar on a set day each month, but it just becomes too easy to get distracted with other tasks. And if you also struggle with this problem, one thing to do is to try scheduling a set time each week for holiday tasks.

 

Emily  23:30

And then you have to make sure you protect that hour for actually working on your holiday tasks. Just because it’s important doesn’t mean it’s easy to prioritize. Try imagining how happy you’ll be once those tasks are done. Giving your future self a gift is a great way to reframe your tasks and get motivated.

 

Heidi  23:47

And if all else fails, try bribing yourself with a reward that you can only have if you finish your holiday planning for the week. You know, you got to do what it takes to get the job done.

 

Emily  23:58

Yeah, or maybe you need some accountability. Get a friend that wants to plan their holiday stuff at the same time, or maybe a sister who made a playbook that would help you. And so if, if you plan when she’s planning, maybe you’ll actually get it done.

 

Heidi  24:12

We can hope.

 

Emily  24:13

And speaking of holiday planning, what are you working on this week, Heidi?

 

Heidi  24:16

Well, I am getting all of my printing done, which is maybe not a holiday task that most people have to do, but I do have a few things that I need to send to Staples because I’m currently printerless. Last year, my planning ahead came back to bite me, because I assumed I had all of the papers I need for our neighborhood scavenger hunt, and I ran out. So I’m getting those printed now, so I know I actually have what I need this time. And what about you, Emily, what are you planning this week?

 

Emily  24:48

Well, right now, I am mostly working on getting ready for Halloween. So last year, I remember feeling like I didn’t get my Halloween decorations up early enough to really enjoy them. So I don’t want to make that mistake again, because I don’t really like the process of putting up decorations, so I tend to put it off.

 

Heidi  25:03

Same.

 

Emily  25:04

This year I’m going to do it in late September and have October 1 as my deadline so that I can enjoy it for the whole month of October. Honestly, my goal is to feel almost sick of it and ready for it all to go away by the time the holiday comes. That’s how I know I did it right.

 

Emily  25:21

And this year, I got the cutest Halloween houses from My Mind’s Eye that I can’t wait to put up. So that’s motivating me to, like, get ready to put up my Halloween decorations soon, but first I need to do some decluttering to get ready and put away the back to school stuff that’s still hanging out.

 

Heidi  25:38

Those houses are so cute, that would be very motivating to put up.

 

Emily  25:41

They are covered in glitter that is getting—when we took them out, the glitter got everywhere. So if you have any tips for how to keep something decorated in glitter, to keep the glitter like attached to it, let me know. I could use those tips.

 

Heidi  25:55

To wrap up the show we are sharing what’s on our nice list. Emily, what is on your nice list this week?

 

Emily  26:00

I’m putting Only Murders in the Building on my nice list.

 

Heidi  26:04

Oh fun.

 

Emily  26:04

I finally started season four, and it’s such a delight. It’s just a consistently funny and enjoyable show. Plus, we grew up with Martin Short and Steve Martin, so I have, like, such a soft spot for them, and they always have the best guest stars on the show. This season has Eugene Levy and Eva Longoria and Zach Galifianakis, just to name a few. So if you need a new show or you haven’t watched Season Four yet, we highly recommend it.

 

Heidi  26:31

I’ve been letting the episodes pile up so I haven’t started yet, so I’m excited to have something to watch.

 

Emily  26:35

There’s a few out so far, but I’m worried I’m probably going to be catching up soon, so that’s a bummer.

 

Heidi  26:40

This once a week’s nonsense.

 

Emily  26:42

I know. What’s getting on your nice list this week, Heidi?

 

Heidi  26:46

Okay, I am putting the Peek Nest app on my list. This is an app for keeping inventory in your house of you know, closets or whatever. I’m using it for my holiday decor. I have tried a lot of inventory apps, and this is my very favorite. I am currently trying to organize my closet, and it’s been so handy to use that app to catalog all of my bins and boxes. It’s really easy to use.

 

Heidi  27:10

You just set up large categories, like Christmas decorations, and then you have smaller collections, or what they call nests in that group. So I could have a nest of bin one, or kitchen decorations, and then I can have pictures of all of my kitchen decorations. The search feature in there is really easy to use. I love that I can see pictures of exactly what’s in each nest and find—if I’m trying to find that one thing, I can easily track down where it is and then get it. So, very handy for holiday planning.

 

Emily  27:40

I love that. I’m going to give that a try this year, especially now that my storage area is so organized. So my bins are nicely organized, I just need to know what’s in them.

 

Heidi  27:47

Yes, that’s the next step.

 

Heidi  27:50

That is it for today’s episode. Remember to include the levels of why, what and how in your holiday planning, and don’t forget to schedule a block of time to work on those plans. And remember, you can find our holiday Head Start Playbook at theholidayheadstart.com/playbook.

 

Emily  28:08

Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see you here next week. If you enjoyed this episode, it would be so helpful if you gave us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts. As a new podcast, we really need every bit of positive promo we can get.

 

Emily  28:25

Thanks for tuning in today. Use this week to get a head start on planning for what’s ahead. And remember, don’t get it perfect. Get it going.

 

Heidi  28:34

Come follow along on Instagram at the Holiday Headstart. We would love to hear from you.

 

Emily  28:40

If you liked this episode, head to Apple podcasts and leave us a review. We’ll see you here next week.