Blogger: Rachel Kent
We are well into the holiday season already! Wow. I’m still shocked that it is December and we have 9 days until Christmas! YIKES!
The holidays are a time to refresh and recharge before we all jump into the new year, yet many of us still need to reach some work-related goals during Christmas break. How do you go about doing this while still focusing on family and also on God, who’s amazing love is the cause for all of the celebration?
I have a few tips for you, and I’d love to hear how you have successfully balanced writing and family during the holidays, too.
1) Don’t neglect a deadline because of the holidays. Set aside a time each week, whether it be Mondays and Tuesdays or 8 a.m.-noon each day to write and reach your goals. If you have a designated time for writing, you will be able to designate time for your family as well. You will also still be able to make that deadline.
2) Tell your family and friends ahead of time which days you are free and which are planned work days. This will help to cut down on those last-minute plans that throw off everything. Establishing a holiday schedule will save you from headaches and late nights while you try to catch up on the writing time that was missed.
3) If you aren’t on a deadline, consider setting the writing aside for two weeks and really spend that time with God and family. You will be able to jump back into your writing in the new year feeling refreshed and ready to write. Writing is a job, and almost everyone who can manage it takes time off from their jobs over Christmas. Allow yourself the same respite if you can.
4) Don’t work on Christmas and make time for church and time with God. The “holy days” should still be holy, even if you are busy.
5) Don’t skip your traditions because you are too busy. Families cling to holiday traditions. They are important to children especially, but everyone loves the traditions each year. If you go to the special children’s play at your church each year; or if you chop down your own Christmas tree; or if you bake cookies with friends, don’t change these fun times. You will regret not having spent that time with your family or friends after this busy season is over.
6) Evaluate your priorities and responsibilities and focus your attention appropriately.
7) Don’t over-commit yourself. If you are already bringing a dish to a church potluck, then don’t agree to bake pies for the annual Christmas party at your wife or husband’s work. If you meet with people at a care home, consider skipping the door-to-door Christmas caroling. Stay involved, but don’t over do it.
How do you balance work and family around the holidays?
What are some of the traditions you like to keep each year?
Starting today, the Books & Such offices are closed for two weeks. We will open up again on January 3. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s!
Oh, why… Means no blog for two weeks? Stretching neck into 2017. It better arrives fast.
While I’m not on a deadline, I’ve placed myself on one. Finish a manuscript by Christmas Eve. The last seven days of each year are always busy and always with family. I don’t see writing for long periods (an hour would be a miracle) in the schedule.
And of course, I shouldn’t write on Christmas, except the nudging doesn’t ease. Then…
We will still have blogs up, but might not be commenting much.
I hope you are able to complete your book before Christmas so you can relax on Christmas Day! 🙂
Regarding family traditions–double check with the family. I actually asked, years ago, if the complex meal was essential to the celebration. To my delighted surprise, it was the gathering together that counted to everyone. Not the food. And **poof!** I save hours of shopping and cooking. A pan of lasagna, and we’re good.
*I CAN cook, I don’t LOVE to cook (I tell people that I’m a woman of many talents, and cooking isn’t one of them). To those of you who delight in hours spent in the kitchen, see if a tradition that doesn’t feed your soul can be streamlined.
Great advice!
Great post, Rachel! Your tips are spot on. There are years when my husband has to travel in December. It’s those years when I pare back my commitments outside my family. If the room mom requests cookies for the Christmas party, I wait to see if others will volunteer to bring them in. Almost always, they do. 🙂 So, I’m learning to say no to things that others can do (and often enjoy doing).
*Our holiday traditions include watching “A Muppet Christmas Carol” and “The Nativity Story” as a family. I enjoy decorating our Christmas tree (but that may be because my husband does the hard work of stringing up the lights!). We sometimes eat with Christmas lights and candles only illuminating our supper.
*Have a merry Christmas, Rachel!
Wonderful! 🙂
You have a great Christmas, too!
I used to go crazy around Christmas. Now that my kids are all grown up, I am trying to just CHILL and enjoy things. Also, what we used to hear when we were younger? “When you’re older, the things you’ll really want are moments with family.” It’s true.
ALL I want is my kids in one place. And preferably, snarking at each other at the dinner table. That might happen sometime over the winter. Do you know that saying, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise”?
Here, it’s “Lord willing, and it doesn’t snow”!
I’m trying to enjoy the little things this year! Having two stockings over the fireplace. Decorating the tree with my Katie. Listening to Katie telling Gavin all about what he has to look forward to this Christmas. It’s all so sweet and I am trying to tuck it all away in my memory. 🙂
I’d like to wish the Books and Such staff and the members of this community the happiest of Christmases and a joyous New Year, and hope to rejoin you in 2017! <3
Merry Christmas, Andrew!! Wishing you and B. a wonderful holiday season.
We’ve gone to the early Christmas service ever since our kids were 3-year-old sheep in the pageant. Then we would drive around for an hour or so looking at lights before going home to open presents. Our kids are in college now. Our son does music at our church while our daughter and her fiance do music at a different church, but we still all meet after the early services to drive around together and look at lights before heading to our house for presents. The kids still love to do that, and I expect that the tradition will continue until they move away to a different town.
May everyone at B&S and all the family of folks who meet together here have a blessed Christmas!
Wonderful tradition!
And thank you! Merry Christmas to you too, Carol! 🙂
I really try to have all necessary work done before the week of Christmas, and that way, I can relax. And usually, during that relax stage, that’s when ideas come to mind.
*I just really love Christmas morning with the girls … games, movies, just time together … I pray they never move off too far from me.
Hmmm…yes, with the boys home from school for the Holidays I will go back to my old writing schedule, the one I kept when they were in preschool. That would be going to bed early and getting up at 4:00am to write, 5:00 if it’s a late day. Works like a charm, no one in their right mind is awake at this time of day and if I’m quiet and don’t bang the coffee pot around while I’m getting settled in to write, I can get a few good hours in and then be completely focused on my family and or baking for the rest of the day! It just requires actually getting in bed by 9:00 which can be a challenge.