Planning

I know I haven’t written on the blog for a while. I finished my six and last chemotherapy session two weeks ago. It hasn’t been easy or fun. My routines, including blogging on a regular basis, have not been up to par. It’s hard enough to keep routines going each day when things are good but once you get away from them for a while it’s that much harder to get back to them. I plan to get my blogging and newsletter routines back on track now that I am feeling better.

I wrote an article on how I simplify my greeting card list. My tip newsletter this week included this article. I want to post it here also because now is the time to work on those cards if you want to get them mailed out on time. If you have any questions on the system I use please ask me about it in the comment section. If you have any suggestions on how you simplify your greeting card list please share them in the comment section so all my readers can learn from them.

Article:

How To Simplify Your Holiday Greeting Card List

Do you love sending Holiday Greeting Cards but dread it at the same time? Does the thought of where to start, who to send them to, and who gets which kind of card make you want to give up the tradition? Here is an easy way to simplify your list to make sending cards a fun tradition instead of a dreaded one.

The first thing to do is “Divide and Conquer”. This is a system that is useful in many different areas of the home to simplify and declutter. Basically, you divide up the project into smaller, more workable parts. For a Holiday Greeting Card list you create several smaller lists that can be used year after year rather than one large one.

The following steps will help you set up a new list or help you break your large list into smaller manageable parts.

1. Set up a separate sheet of paper for each heading.

Family
Friends
Co-workers
Neighbors
Others (mail person, hairdresser, school teachers, etc.)

2. Sub-divide each of the above sections by holiday. If you don’t know the religion of the recipient then it’s best to send a generic Season’s Greeting card. To keep it simple you can send this generic card to everyone and not bother with sub-dividing by Chanukah or Christmas. You’ll still want a separate list for Kwanzaa and/or New Years. By sub-dividing your lists you know what kind of cards to buy, how many of each, and when to send them.

Although most of the holiday’s are on the same day each year Chanukah is not. Usually it is a couple of weeks before Christmas but check your calendar to see how early to mail those cards. According to the United States Postal Service your Season’s Greeting and Christmas cards should be addressed and mailed by December 20^th at the latest. If you’re sending Kwanzaa and/or New Years cards they should be sent last.

3. Decide who to cut from your list and who to keep. After you separate your list into the above sections it will be easier to prioritize who is important enough to keep on your list this year. If your list is still large after cutting you may want to mark the names with a number (1,2,3) from the most important people to the least important ones you want to send cards to.

4. Now put the current address to each name. If you write the names of the family members on the inside of the cards you will want to list those names on the side or under the address. This way you won’t have to try to remember them or look them up later.

5. Time to start writing out your cards. Start with the list according to the date of the holiday and the most important people you want to send cards to. Make sure you get all your number ones on each list done before tackling the twos and threes. Then if you run out of time and can’t get through the whole list you don’t have to feel guilty. The most important people on your list will get their cards and the others will have to wait till next year.

Keep this list assessable throughout the year either on your computer or in a file folder or notebook. Add or delete names as needed. During the year you can easily update addresses so when it is time to send cards next year the list will be ready to go. Whether you buy your cards at the “after Christmas” sales or at the beginning of the season your list is there to guide you as to what kind of cards to buy and how many.

 

Janice Scissors

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://cutoutthebreastcancer.wordpress.com (blog)