Holidays and birthdays aren't surprises

Avoid last minute scrambling by looking ahead

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that holidays and birthdays aren't surprises. Plan ahead

(00:24):
and you can avoid needless scrambling. So in life, some
emergency shopping is inevitable. A sick kid needs medicine, you're
out of a key ingredient for a dinner. You have
already started making it happens. But I have always been

(00:45):
fascinated by those scenes of last minute Christmas shoppers, or
people who have to pay premium prices and face limited
selection when they are shopping on Valentine's Day for a
sweetheart who expects something on Valentine's Day? Did you not
see this coming? Is Christmas or your anniversary not on

(01:08):
the same day every year. Perhaps people don't actually want
to do anything special for holidays, and the last minute
shopping is a protest. But if you are going to
do it, best to realize that holidays and birthdays are
never surprises, so build them into the rhythm of your life.

(01:33):
Most electronic calendars will let you program in recurring dates,
so if you haven't put in the birthdays of your
close friends, family, members and colleagues. Go do that right now.
I'll wait. If ten years from now you are no

(01:54):
longer speaking with Joan from work, you can take her
birthday off your calendar the next time you see it.
But for most people who will be in your life
long term, there is no downside to making such a note.
You might also put a reminder for any holiday celebrations
where you will be expected to do something. If you

(02:16):
are usually the one buying Halloween costumes, you can put
a note in mid October to ask your kids what
they'd like to be, or give them a deadline for choosing.
I have noticed that our Easter baskets are a bit lacking,
so I put a note for a few weeks before
Easter next year to remind myself to rectify that situation.

(02:42):
You can also generally get in the habit of scanning
the next week or two when you do your weekly planning,
so you can build anything in. If you see that
your grandmother's birthday is in a week, you've got time
to get the card in the mail. You also have
to procure necessary supplies without extra trips. If your neighborhood

(03:05):
always has a Fourth of July party that you help organize,
and you are in target on June thirty, why not
just go ahead and grab those red, white, and blue
plates so you're not fighting everyone for them on July three,
or worse, the morning of July four. In any case,

(03:27):
a great many important dates happen every year at the
same time. They are never surprises, so think about what's
coming up and think about what you need to do
ahead of time. Avoiding just one emergency target or post
office run can probably save you an hour of time

(03:51):
and frustration. In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our times. Thanks
for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

(04:11):
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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