Managing Time At Christmas

Christmas is -as everyone knows, the busiest time of the year, even nipping to the shops for a loaf of bread can become a mammoth task with the weather and the holiday traffic and the Christmas offers in stores that make you buy twice the amount of chocolate you really need, but so desperately want because it's Christmas and three for the price of two is so good, even if you are the only one in your house that eats it.

Between working, sneaky prezzie shopping, the huge food shop, card writing (and everything else that comes with Christmas) it becomes hard to manage normal life alone, turning Christmas into more of a chore than something enjoyable. 

As Christmas is my favourite thing ever, and I realised that I just wasn't having any fun, just getting through the days with work, realising I've actually only bought a one present for everyone, not the huge bundles I was meaning to -I'd decided to take a step back out of my crazy life and get myself organised so I can enjoy myself more, and thought I'd share a few tips/things I'm doing.

So I do present shopping all year round. Psychologically, not physically. Everytime someone says to me they like a certain thing/brand etc, I make mental note in my brain and save it. Meaning everyone this year is getting something they actually really want, especially when I know these people will never get round to buying these gifts for themselves. 

This mental list becomes a physical one come November/December where I hit the online shops and order it all in. Ordering online is the best thing I've done this year, because whenever I go into the shops I end up seeing things I love for myself, and end up buying lots of things that are cute etc and before I know it I've spent all my money on gifts that people don't really need. Plus, everytime I've gone online to buy a specific beauty product for people, amazing gift sets have come up for the exact same price but loaded with extras, which makes the present so much more special. 

Obviously Christmas isn't Christmas without shopping in actual shops and picking up silly cute little presents and spending way too much money, but I like knowing I've bought everything that needs to be bought so I can then bulk up the presents with the little things I find in shops. And it means I don't have to feel too guilty about treating myself to things either.

Make everything an event. Christmas so easily turns into stress, knowing there's piles of wrapping, boxes of decorations still deep in the attic corners. When I do my wrapping I always ensure I have fun while doing it, I put some music on, pour myself a glass of wine, or baileys, light the candles, have a little snack with me, and take my time with it. I turn it into an actual thing so I can look forward to it, it gives you a bit of "me time" in the evening when everyone's in bed. Or during the day when everyone's at work.

For me the most important thing too at the minute is ensuring I get my own personal space time, but still being productive. I've realised that I have a few breaks when I'm working, and where I usually come home and drink tea and listen to music until I have to go back out, this week I've been using these times to run a bath, pamper myself a bit (my breaks can be up to four hours), and writing blog posts, I have barely written all year because "I don't have time" but it's actually so easy to fit in a few minutes or an hour to have just to yourself, to come away from the buzz for a bit. And I've found it's made me a lot more productive to have my own set time as my "me time." 

That's how I've been keeping myself organised this Christmas, my presents are all bought, nothing's wrapped yet because I like to wrap closer to Christmas, but if I have time I think I'll make a start on them today actually before time disappears completely.

 I bought a Liz Earle advent calendar whilst present shopping, which is kind of what inspired this post, becuase I've been so in love with taking baths and having my "me time" and I took a few photos of the products.

Full sized hot cloth cleanser, 15ml Brightening Treatment Mask and 50ml Skin Tonic.

Also popped in half a gingerbread bath fizzer from Zoe's Christmas collection.

Shaan x