I apologize for no blog yesterday.  I decided to take a break and play with my recovering dog.  We will two posts today to make up for it.

The holiday season is filled with big tasks:  baking, shopping, wrapping, decorating, etc.  Taken as a whole, it can be overwhelming.  It can really help to break tasks into smaller pieces:

• Don't try to do everything in one session if that's not how you prefer to work.  If you force yourself into a decorating or card-writing marathon, you'll make yorself hate the task and the last things you do will show a lack of care.
• Do combine tasks that allow you to take advantage of economies of scale.  For example, if you have to shell nuts for two different kinds of cookies, do them all at once since you'll develop a productive rhythm.  Similarly, it may help to make all the packaging bows in one sitting.
• If you break tasks into smaller pieces, you can divide them among people.  For example, in writing cards, even young children can take care of sealing envelopes and putting on stamps and stickers.  Older children can address cards.  Decoration can be divided up as well — by room, by type of decoration, etc.
• if you can keep a task set up at a place in your house, it makes it easier to work on it for small mounts of time.  If you have to set up a craft project each time you want to work on it or get all the wrapping stuff out each time you want to wrap a gift, you'll find every reason to procrastinate.  If all you have to do is walk over to the desk where the stacks of cards are located, it's easy to write a note or two while you wait for dinner to cook.
• Never underestimate the value of seeing some progress.  When you can see that a piece of a task has been completed, it makes it easier to move on to the next.

So go out — divide and conquer your holiday tasks.