Why You Should Plan Your Holidays Early [Episode 1]

Heidi  0:04

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

 

Emily  0:14

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  0:28

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  0:40

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

 

Emily  0:50

Hey there, friends. Welcome to the very first episode of the Holiday Headstart Podcast. Today we’re talking about the benefits of planning early and sharing a get ahead tip for keeping track of your lists.

 

Heidi  1:05

We are so excited today to launch the first episode of the Holiday Headstart Podcast. Woo! We hope that you will join us each week as we deep dive into all of the nitty gritty details of planning and preparing so that you can actually enjoy your celebrations instead of being lost in the To Do lists.

 

Emily  1:26

And don’t worry, we won’t only be talking about Christmas. We love any reason to celebrate around here, real holidays, made up holidays, big birthdays and half birthdays, and we will be covering all of it here on the podcast.

 

Heidi  1:41

And at first it might seem strange that we are starting a holiday focused podcast in the middle of spring, and we did discuss that, but we decided that spring is actually the best time to talk about holiday prep, because there’s no pressure if we talk about our Halloween hassles and our Christmas concerns. Now we have time to address the issues and make a plan for how to fix them.

 

Emily  2:07

And that is our goal with this podcast. As we said in our intro, we’re all about kicking overwhelm to the curb and bringing the joy back to your holidays and every day.

 

Heidi  2:19

If that sounds like something you can use, you’re in the right spot. In this podcast, we will be sharing all of our best tips and tricks for how to prioritize, plan and prepare in advance, so that the days that make life special do not become the days that make us stressed.

 

Emily  2:36

If you’re like me, and Heidi, I know you are like me, one thing you have learned the hard way is that thoughtful, detailed planning is useless if we don’t actually follow through on our plans.

 

Heidi  2:49

Yeah, there’s an old quote that something like, we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training, and in this case, I would say we fall to the level of our planning. Knowing how to implement our plans is kind of where a lot of our best ideas just kind of fall apart.

 

Emily  3:08

Planning ahead only works if we have a way to put those plans into action.

 

Heidi  3:13

We kind of need some like, catchy phrase here, like, make the right plans. And I don’t know, plan the right makes.  I don’t think that’s gonna work.

 

Emily  3:25

Plan the right tasks and task the right plan. There we go. No, English is not englishing here.

 

Heidi  3:35

Okay well, we can keep workshopping that one, but in the meantime, we would love it if you would hit that little subscribe or follow button in your podcast app, that would just make today feel like a holiday to us.

 

Emily  3:47

Well, 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 find a way to keep track of your lists. Tell us how you do this, Heidi.

 

Heidi  4:06

Well, I would love to, I don’t know if I’ve got all the answers, but here’s what works for me. So planning ahead, obviously requires a lot of list making, and in the past, I have been the queen of jotting down a list on a receipt or an envelope or a napkin only for whatever that random scrap is to disappear when I happen to need it.

 

Emily  4:25

Yep, guilty.

 

Heidi  4:26

So the first thing a planner ahead needs is a way to keep track of lists. If you don’t already have a list app you love this week’s tip is to play around until you find something that works for you. I like to use a combination of Google Sheets and the Notes app. I use Google Sheets for all my To Do lists, and I like the Notes app for brainstorming and kind of gathering ideas. And I know there are tons more list apps out there, so find the one that works for you.

 

Emily  4:56

Digital is handy because you always have it with you. But if you’re an old school paper and pencil person, you still need a way to keep your list organized. Maybe you need to get a dedicated list making notebook or a folder for storing all your lists, or something like that.

 

Heidi  5:12

Oh, and that might mean that it is very important for you to take a trip to the office supply aisle in target. Yes, I think, I think that’s a must.

 

Emily  5:21

Yeah, we’re giving you permission. Go ahead.

 

Heidi  5:25

Right? Even if I’m going to keep my list of my phone, I think I might need a trip to target.

 

Emily  5:28

Yeah, let’s go after this. Okay, sounds good. Now, let’s share what we’re working on this week. Heidi, what are you working on this week?

 

Heidi  5:36

So I am working on organizing a closet in my front room to store my holiday bins and decorations, you know, the stuff I don’t want to put in the garage. I like to buy gifts ahead of time, which I think, like, hey, gold star for that. But what I do is, then I just stash them in a random place, and I can’t find them when it’s time to wrap them. So I’ve got several gifts in my closet right now that I was meant to give in December, but hopefully, if I create a dedicated closet space, I’m not going to have this problem anymore.

 

Emily  6:05

Plus you need a list for it, so that when you buy something, you can check that list at gift giving time, because I do the same thing. I’ve got, like, a closet full of gifts I bought, and then I’m like, Oh, forgot about that.

 

Heidi  6:19

Emily, what are you working on this week?

 

Emily  6:21

Well, when we’re recording this episode, it’s a couple weeks before Easter, so I’m busy prepping for that. Did it throw anyone else off the Easter is so early this year, it’s way too early. Interesting. Okay, so I have been filling up plastic eggs and gathering items for Easter baskets. My goal is to have the baskets ready to go really soon, like a whole week in advance instead of the night before, because inevitably, I realize that someone’s basket is totally lopsided from everybody else’s, so it’s much easier to discover that a week in advance. So wish me luck on being this prepared. I’ve never been ready a week before Easter before.

 

Heidi  6:59

That’s awesome, good for you.

 

Heidi  7:00

To wrap up the show, we are sharing our nice list. Emily, what has made it on your nice list this week?

 

Emily  7:07

I am adding the book Ready or Not by Cara Bastone to my nice list. I just finished listening to this book, and it was charming, Rom Com, set in Brooklyn. I don’t want to give away too much, so I’ll just go with the like short book description, which says, A surprise pregnancy leads to even more life changing revelations in this heartfelt, slow burn, friends to lovers, romance of found family and unexpected love. It was a really nice, lighthearted read. If you’re into that kind of thing, which I definitely am, I think you would like it. Heidi.

 

Heidi  7:39

It sounds like it was made just for me. So I’ll have to check that out.

 

Emily  7:44

It’s a little spicy, I will say. It surprised me, considering she’s pregnant, how spicy it is.

 

Heidi  7:51

Okay, good to know!

 

Emily  7:54

What is going on your nice list, Heidi?

 

Heidi  7:57

So I am adding a very strangely named product to my nice list, and that is the nampon.

 

Emily  8:03

I love that you picked this for our first episode.

 

Heidi  8:07

It’s just been really relevant in my life right now because of stupid allergies, you know, trees, springtime, bad mix, and so I am having to take all the allergy pills and sprays, and with that, unfortunately, comes nose bleeds. So nampons are great for this. I’m so sorry everyone, but if you have spring allergies, you will thank me. Unlike tissues, like they don’t stick in your nose and cause more bleeding. So I’m I know this is TMI. I’m so sorry, but I’m trying to help you out here.

 

Heidi  8:36

So they’re kind of like little sponges, and they’re coated with, I’m sorry, a clotting agent to help stop the problem. It’s gross. But if you deal with nosebleeds, or you’ve got kids that deal with nosebleeds, or, you know, they come with sports, or you know how kids are, these are super handy. I will say, the only drawback is that the packaging is tricky to get open one handed, if you know you’re trying to pinch your nose, but they do a great job at what they do, so, you know.

 

Emily  9:04

I’m the one that told you about those. So does that mean I’m on the nice list too?

 

Heidi  9:08

You can be on the nice list too. We’ll see how it goes for next week. No promises.

 

Heidi  9:13

That is it for today’s episode. Start thinking ahead to your upcoming celebrations and find a way to keep track of all of those lists, and thank you so much for joining us on our very first episode, and we hope so much that we will see you here next week.

 

Emily  9:29

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a five star rating and review in Apple podcasts, that would help us so much as we try to reach new listeners. Have a great week.

 

Emily  9:41

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  9:49

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

 

Emily  9:55

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