My #1 Tip To Support Your Brain During the Holidays

Wow! How is it already December??

The end of the year is time to double down on supporting your brain’s executive functioning skills. The holiday season puts a lot of stress on folks, and it is so easy to “overdo” everything: food, commitments to parties and events, plus all that pressure to shop for (and spend money on) gifts.

My make-do office in the children’s room at the auto dealership. Fortunately, I am short and fit the chairs!

To make matters worse, ordinary life challenges don’t take a break during the holidays. My beloved Maytag washing machine is broken, and I’m two weeks away from having a repair person look at it. I am doing laundry at my son’s house. And I am currently writing this blog in an auto dealership, 3+ hours into a repair for my car that was NOT on my to-do list for today.

If your heart is racing just reading that paragraph, pause. Lean back in your chair to get a small arch in your lower back. Push a bit into your feet and take a couple of slow deep breaths. That will activate the parasympathetic nervous system to lower your heart rate. Ahh…that feels good.

My #1 Best Piece of Advice for Your Holiday Season Ahead

Of all of the ways I support clients through the holidays, here is the number one piece of advice that helps the most. Make a short – I mean really short – to-do list every day. I constantly share my to-do list with my clients, showing them how I write down only 1-3 tasks a day (those actions that go beyond all the everyday “have-to” and regular commitments).

This tip was learned the hard way, and is the reason for the second truth of time I teach in my Seeing My Time® Program: Time Takes up Space. It doesn’t stretch so you can do more.

I recently read a fascinating article in Wired Magazine by Clive Thompson, on the subject of productivity apps. Everyone is looking for a quick app to solve their to-do list challenges. Without providing a spoiler for the article, I got to the end and felt pretty darn good about our Seeing My Time Adult Planner System. Good old paper, coupled with an awareness of the spatial aspect of time and how it limits us is the way to go!

Our 2022 planners are NOW shipping! Trust me. I’ve already got mine, and a couple more that are now annual Christmas gifts, which also simplifies my life.

All of us at EFS are wishing you healthy and peaceful holidays.

Until next year…little by little, we get things done.

Marydee