Do you need a place to store all those holiday ideas, notes, recipes, and clippings?
We do it every year…as the holiday season approaches we tear recipes out of magazines. We jot ideas down on envelopes. We rip out gift ideas from catalogs. And we clip upcoming events out of the newspaper.
This year instead of making a pile of papers including the garlic mashed potato recipe, the jewelry box idea for Aunt Mabel and the holiday light tour dates, try this:
- Grab a single file folder
- Label it something like “holiday ideas”
- Slip it somewhere handy so you can add to it as you clip, snip and jot down notes
Even if you are very tech savvy and tend to keep notes on your phone or tablet you might still find it useful to have a place to tuck papers.
There are two “rules” to a successful system:
Rule #1
Keep the file handy. If you can’t reach it you won’t use it, trust me.
Rule #2
Forget perfect. This is not the time to try to categorize and systematize all the papers in the file. This is simply the place to stash the papers so you can find them again.
I know it sounds a little early to even be discussing holiday ideas and you might be thinking this is a good idea and you’ll get to it later. But think about this, a simple file folder prepares you now which means:
- You’ll have gift ideas when it comes time to shop because you’ll have collected them as friends and family mentioned things they like or need.
- You’ll be able to find that piece of paper or note when you need it which saves you time and makes you feel successful.
- You’ll have a less stressful and more joyful holiday season.
So are you going to make a holiday idea file today?
