Hazel Leone-Curtis
4 Life Hacks To Save Your Holiday Season: Time-Saving Tips

Here at My Panda, we know exactly how it feels to be bogged down by the stress of the holiday season. There's a certain organizational chaos that comes with the Holidays. Time slips away faster and faster each year it seems like, leaving you less and less time to spend with your loved ones. When you're worried about laundry, picking the kids up from school, the sweater you're going to wear for the holiday office party- it can become a whirlwind really quick. Luckily, we can help you with that. Here are 4 quick tips to help you along the way!
1. Bogged down by the Holiday To-Do List? Hire a Helper!
There's enough stress on the average person with work and the many obligations that come with that alone, but what about those pesky miscellaneous side missions such a grocery shopping, taking out trash, washing the dishes, doing the laundry- folding the laundry?
Asking your kids to do it is a nightmare in itself, so what about having an extra hand to help out to save the hassle of walking past the same pile of unfolded clean clothes you told them to pick up off of the floor 3 days ago. Here at My Panda, you can give one our highly trained helpers in your area your list and they'll check it twice with services such as ​Trash to Curb Service, Laundry Service, Shopping and Delivery Service, down to custom services like gift wrapping, sorting mail, even grabbing food on the way back from a task to eat for dinner. The holidays are the absolute prime time to take full advantage of an extra hand!
2. Time Block! Time Block! Time Block!
If you find yourself becoming easily overwhelmed just looking at the aforementioned Holiday To-Do List, you're certainly not alone. Consider creating a new calendar where your time specifically separated by the hour- or by however long it takes to do each task. Time Blocking requires that you divide your day into defined slots or chunks of time. Each block of time is dedicated to completing a specific task or group of tasks, and only those for the allotted time. Any task, responding back to emails, zoom meetings, the shower. It battles multitasking head on, and it allows you to have control of what needs to be done now and what can be delegated to others so you can focus better on having the best time with your loved ones this holiday season. (Not to be biased... but we would recommend My Panda just for you)
3. Set Those Expectations
One of the worst feelings ever is getting a text from your boss or coworker while on your holiday, asking about something work related during your time to decompress. Of course we're all human and we want to help out the best way we can so things aren't a big mess later, but our time is our time... especially with family. When almost everyone is taking time off, it's hard to know who-does-what and who-gets-what when nothing is properly established before the Chickens (or more so the Turkey) comes home to roost.
The best way to combat this? Set your expectations beforehand. Yep.
"But, how do we do this, our Great and Wise Panda?" You (hopefully) ask, and I'll tell you. Host a meeting. But not just any meeting, the meeting.
In this meeting, you and your team (who are also battling the same Holiday demons as you) will take charge and reduce everyone’s stress during the holiday season. If there’s a lot of overlapping dates, plan ahead to ensure your team’s work is covered during that time, spread out the workload between you all to prevent overwhelm and burnout, and set your availability boundaries up front and center so that people can spend more time on deep work and enjoying festivities and food comas ahead.
And you, as a Panda Pupil (yes, we did just make that up) will be praised for your absolutely amazing idea that saves everyone time and helps us all enjoy the holidays the way we're supposed to. Then, to properly thank us for helping you, you'll tell them to download the My Panda app to further help them celebrate! We even have gift cards available for all of your loved ones. Time is precious for us all, why not give a little more to them?
4. Don't forget to Have Some Fun!
Through all this talk to time management, time blocking, meetings and other trials of daily life, it's hard to remember what the point of the holiday season is, and that's spending time with the people who love you for you! Here at My Panda, we aim to make life just a tad bit easier on your shoulders by allowing you the time this holiday season to go make the memories, take the trips, the classes and whatever else to lead a more enriching life while leaving the rest to us! We do offer Vacation Services and Pet Services as well, so if you do go away you won't have to worry about your house or your furry friend. So go have some fun, and we'll see you when you get back.
Now a Bonus Tip, just a little gift to start you on your journey to Time Saving Wonderland..
Download the My Panda App from the link below to see a convenient list of tasks we cover and even get a hold of same day services. If you think you could get used to us helping with these tasks, consider the Panda Partner Program and really get yourself set for the holidays and beyond that to every day. Have a Happy Holidays!
www.linkedin.com/company/mypandaapp