Getting Things to Their Home

I was working with a client, and I told her to toss her clothes toward the laundry basket. “Um, huh?” you might be thinking to yourself. The point I was making was that we don’t need to be stodgy and particular about how we do something. We can try to have fun with what we need to do – not unlike my entire blog post about “Make It Fun.”

When we’re looking at people not getting things to where they belong – there’s two situations we might be in:

we’re leaving things wherever we’re at when we’re finished with them or
we’re getting them close by, or near their “home.”

Therefore, in dealing with things that don’t move from where they were last used – we can toss things towards where they belong. Of course, you’re not going to throw your CDs at the shelf! The other way is to start baskets/bins of things that belong in other rooms. I’ll admit that I will often drop that bin off in the other room where it will sit ignored for a few days sometimes. At least it’s in the right room, if not it’s “home.”

The situation I described was with a pre-teen girl and I talked about acting like it was basketball. The truth is I’m not into sports and neither was she, but it’s intended as a way to get the items closer to where they belong – making it easier. She had been dropping her clothes on the floor and leaving them there, which isn’t unusual. Yet trying to make a game of getting the clothes closer to the laundry basket makes it interesting. To some extent, it’s also about retraining ourselves to new habits.

Often, I’ll do similar things with paper trash – throwing them towards the basket. I find myself curious about how close, or not, I’ll be. Or whether if I bounce it off the wall just so, will it make it in.

Sometimes we know what we need to do – that item needs to go there, but we still don’t quite get to happen. Right now, I’m not talking about the things we’re undecided on or are still active. You’ve made a home of various things, yet there are still piles. Is there a way to make it more fun – like tossing them?

Unfortunately, we still need some discipline. If you toss things towards a basket – you’ll still need to take some time to put the things where they into the basket. If you move things into the room where they belong, you still need to take some time to put them away within the room.

This is the time when your perceptions of time are likely to be exaggerated – it will take much less time than you anticipate to put them away. Could you time yourself to see how fast you can put all the desk supplies away (once you’ve got them all piled on the desk)? Or set your timer for 10 minutes and put everything away that you can before it goes off?

It takes time and practice to make sure things make it back into their “homes” after you’ve used them. I know my suitcases are notorious for sitting out after a trip – yet we can find ways to improve our behavior in returning things to where they belong. After you’ve identified where you falter – are things left where they “fall” or do they make it partway? From here, you can begin to find ways to get them the rest of the way home.

Use Your Time Intentionally

With that title, do you think I’m going to talk about being more productive? I’m certainly a fan of being as productive as possible and always striving to find ways to improve productivity.

But, that is not my point with this title.

It’s about being aware of how you’re using your time; of asking yourself periodically if you’re currently using your time in a way that you want to be.

Maybe the best example is a couple of weekends ago, my husband saw me sitting on the couch playing a game and he asked me “is this how you want to be spending your time?” My answer was “yup.” What he hadn’t been aware of was that I’d just stopped being productive and was taking a few minutes to relax before jumping into the next task. I was using my time intentionally – since I had decided to take a break and play a couple of games.

In what felt like an occurrence of synchronicity, one of the sessions I attended at the NAPO conference this year, talked about having an “intention awareness.” A couple of month’s prior, I’d started asking whether my husband and I were using our time “intentionally.” It was a way to simply pay attention to how we were spending our time, and whether there were other things we needed or wanted to be doing.

You probably know, as I do, how easy it is to lose track of time. I love Sudoku, and there are times when I sit down to play and the next thing I know, several hours have passed! Eeekk! That wasn’t what I wanted to be doing – at least not for that long. I’ve had that happen on the other end of things, where I’m working on something around the house (or even with a client) and before I know it hours have passed. It was “productive” time, but at least with the housework, was it what I needed or wanted to be spending all that time on?

It can be challenging to even remember to ask yourself the question about whether you’re spending time the way you want to – if it weren’t, you probably wouldn’t lose track of time at all. It can be helpful to have someone else around to gently ask the question, as my husband did to me. Yet, he’s gone all day and I’ve gotten in the habit of first – randomly asking myself, whenever it occurs to me. Second, I use cues around the house, like when a plane goes overhead (which happens a lot) to stop and consider if I’m using my time in the way I want to be.

This second approach is actually what the session talked about – finding some ways to cue yourself to stop and think. Ideally, it will be somewhat randomly and periodically throughout the day, since it’s something you want to think about more than once a day. Even a timer that you continue to reset can help here.

I’m fascinated with time. It never changes, yet it certainly feels like it does – our perceptions of time are erratic and inconsistent. I’m amazed how easy it is to lose track of time – whether we’re being productive or goofing off. Everyone I know, professionally or personally, seems at least a little discontented about the way they use their time.

Here’s a question for you – are you aware (and happy) with how you’re using your time? I don’t believe we can ever be perfect, yet I do believe that there’s always room for improvement – are you ready to start asking yourself “is this an intentional use of my time?”

PlanetSafe Planners

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Undated 30 day calendar planner

Pros:

customizable
adjustable; easy to rearrange (with post-it notes)
environmentally friendly
reusable (depending on style used)
great for visual people
thin and sturdy

Cons:

restricted to home- not possible to carry around
limited space on some calendar squares
not reusable, with some styles

Review:

This is another product that I discovered through the NAPO expo, at last year’s conference (and this year’s too) – PlanetSafe Planners. I love the idea that you use a dry erase marker on the calendar, how easy and clean to change things. As well, they enable using post-it notes for other areas, again so easy to rearrange and move things. The flexibility and ease of using their planners is exceptional.

My husband and I might be unique; we have no calendar in the house to record events. We have our Google calendars synced, and these are always with us. Without kids or any other reasons, we’ve found no reason for a wall calendar to tell us about our appointments. Nevertheless, I think this can be a superb calendar for some people – as long as you need that household calendar. The only condition is that you use it and don’t rely exclusively on what (if anything) you carry with you.

Considering what my schedule often looks like, the squares look too small for extensive schedules, and then trying to add in other people’s schedules too seems unrealistic. Thus would depend heavily on how much you need to keep track of. If I only put in rough hours of when I’d be otherwise occupied, there’s potentially enough room for several people’s obligations.

I think I might be a little odd – for I found myself resisting the idea of this environmental calendar that I’d need to replace every year – and how “environmental” that it is. Then again, it’s not paper. Although reading about their development, these calendars are a 100% green product after struggling to find a natural adhesive. They also offer options for undated calendar options.

Although for myself I’m not interested in their calendars, I am tempted by some of the goal planners- the idea that my husband and I could have a very visible post-it note planner for our joint goals, for the house and other plans. This is one the strengths of PlanetSafe Planners – they are a great visual – with the different color post-it’s, you’re unlikely to miss it!

Yearly goals with post-it notes

In some ways, the intriguing part of their planners is how a number of them also focus on goals and tasks – having a space included separate from the calendar for these items. It would be very rewarding to take down the post-it notes after completing tasks. The limited, yet not small area would encourage people to NOT over schedule.

PlanetSafe Planner 30 day calendar and tasks

30 day calendar with task or customizable section

From my limited perspective here in the Midwest, it’s sad that this company is not better known. Although there are some limitations to some of their products, they are worth keeping in mind to help you plan – depending on the contexts relevant to your life.

Note: All my reviews are done without consideration for the company (sorry!) – as unbiased as possible! I don’t receive anything from any of them and most don’t know I’m even reviewing their products.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Let me admit something – I frequently struggle with wearing myself out. I’ll wake up one morning with plans of all that I’ll get accomplished and it falls flat. I’ve exhausted myself in prior days and my body and mind demand a reprieve. Often I blame this on having a chronic disease and how it can be unpredictable. The truth is that although this might be part of the picture, I also have a tendency to overdo things. As a professional organizer, I feel like I should be better about this not happening, yet I’m human as well as I recognize it and am working on it.

Somehow, many of us strive to just work harder. As if that’s the answer – “If only I could work harder and faster, then I could manage…” This is not the answer. We only have a limited supply of energy, whether you have health issues or not. We all need a certain amount of sleep to re-energize ourselves. The truth is that we need to work smarter.

I was fortunate enough to get into the expo of ASTD (The American Society for Training and Development) last year and was intrigued with a booth there: The Energy Project. Although I found the people manning the booth to be rude, I was captivated by the ideas presented. Since a year ago on coming across them, I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a few webinars they’ve put on. Eventually I buy his latest book and read that to get more in depth information.

One of the things Tony Schwartz, the CEO of The Energy Project, says is that we have 90 minutes maximum of focused attention before we lose that energy. After that, we need to take a break for renewal. He recommends doing this throughout the day, after 90 minutes of focused work to build in intermittent renewal breaks, as we have cycles like our sleep cycle. He says how long those breaks are depends on you and what will help you renew your energy although it can be as little as 5 minutes – it’s about the quality of the renewal, not how much time we spend. If we can implement those renewal breaks throughout our day, he says that we’ll be even more productive.

This makes sense to me. I also know that I’m notorious for getting so absorbed into something that before I know it hours have passed. This is not healthy – I want to be conscious about what I’m doing and how I’m spending my time. I found a Mac program that helps me address this issue for when I’m on the computer for long stretches, Dejal Time Out Free. It fades the screen for me at the intervals I’ve set – for resting my eyes and reminding me that 90 minutes have passed with the option of postponing the break or even skipping it altogether.

I’m still practicing applying this when I’m not at the computer. I know what I need to do; I just forget to set the timer! I’ve talked before about how using a timer (Time I & Time II) can help us get control of our time, and now we can use it for our energy too. I’ve my timer handy so that I can use it both for the focused attention as well as to track my breaks. It’s been amazing how refreshed I’ve felt at the end of the day when I’ve applied this process during the day.

As an entrepreneur, I could always be doing more work. That’s not including my other roles as wife, friend, daughter, or the various values I hold in my life and I want to spend time on. This is not any different from anyone else as we all have many roles and values that we need to attend to in order to feel we’re handling things well. If we can use this 90 minutes cycle to focus on those various aspects, we’ll find more balance without the exhaustion from overextending ourselves. It’s a process and we can train ourselves to stay focused and then enjoy the break before digging back in.

Set Times for Handling E-Mail

I’ve been reading how we should set aside specific times during the day to deal with e-mail. By only dealing with e-mail at those certain times, we’ll reduce distractions and improve our productivity. I’ve noticed how although I’ve turned the e-mail chime off, the number of unopened e-mails get my attention whenever it goes up. It turns out that I’m enticed to check my e-mail, even when I’m in the midst of working on something. I know better, yet it’s hard to resist.

Then something even more dramatic happened with my e-mail. I checked it one day before heading off to a client’s. I had an e-mail that I very quickly read and thought about it as I drove to my appointment. It was a late night and I went to bed after getting home. Several days later as I was driving to another appointment, I suddenly wondered if I’d responded to that e-mail. It turned out that I hadn’t. Yet, I’d thought about what I’d say and then forgot that I hadn’t gotten those words into an e-mail.

Truthfully, I’d already been thinking I needed a better way to handle e-mail. Everything I’d been reading was just reinforced by my experience. With all that technology offers us, it also is training us to ignore some basic principles. Technology does provide much faster ways to communicate with others, whether it’s e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter – no need to wait for that letter to be delivered by the Post Office and wait for the person to write back and get it into the mail. I do miss those days some!

Yet, I see how compulsively I check my e-mail after I see the number go up, and not unlike the mailbox most times, I’m disappointed. While the real crux of the matter is – I distracted myself from what I was working on. Tony Schwartz of The Energy Project says that tasks take 25% longer when we switch between them, than if we’d just focused on one at a time. Yikes!

It seems to me that most professionals already practice limiting when they deal with e-mail, and having embarrassingly forgotten I hadn’t responded, magnifies its importance for my life. Yet as I think about doing this, I realize there’s some reluctance, maybe even dread. E-mail is certainly not as instant as the social media tools, but it’s designed as this quick way to communicate. It almost seems contradictory to set aside chunks of time for dealing with it. Somehow, it seems like it’s not supposed to be time consuming.

Nevertheless, it’s important to take your time in dealing with it. There’s no question that some e-mails need our time and attention. Also, this is how we avoid letting e-mails get out of control. If we set aside time every day to handle our e-mail we not only respond when we need to, we can add things to our schedule, and archive those e-mails that are relevant enough to keep.

There’s no easy answer for how much time you need to handle your e-mail. If your work is largely via e-mail, you’ll likely need more time than others whose work is less e-mail dependent. From what I’ve read, a minimum of twice a day, so whether that’s 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes in the evening, or more will depend on your situation.

Most of know that we need to focus on what we’re doing and limit the number of distractions that come our way. Yet the technology encourages us to jump around – and we’re prone to avoid pain and drawn towards pleasure. We need to remember that although it might feel limiting to schedule specific times for e-mail, in the long run it will be more pleasurable!

Keeping Things Close to Where You Use Them is Not Always the Right Answer

You’ve probably heard that you should keep things close to where you use them. I’m even fond of this idea. It makes sense. Doesn’t it?

It only makes sense it some circumstances.

I was using this principle in one of our closets. I had my medications on a shelf. When I refilled my pill containers, I did it close to this closet, so they were handy. Recently we pulled everything out of the closet and as I handled all the various items, I started thinking. This closet actually held many different things, as closets are wont to do. There were movies, memorabilia, craft supplies, a handful of books, repair projects, and various other odds and ends. Of course, as time moved along, I started keeping other odds and ends in there too.

The thing was that I only accessed the medications periodically. The pill containers are refilled twice a month. This closet is almost prime real estate in our home. So many things could go somewhere else and be just as accessible. I’d set it all up when we moved in, approaching a decade ago, and it made sense. I was storing the items close to where I used them.

This is one case where keeping something close to where I used it was not the best use of the space as well as it was breaking one of the other guiding principles – keep like things together. It makes better use of our space and easier to find things by keeping like items together. We have a linen closet opposite the bathroom, where many items are kept since our bathroom is tiny. Now my medications have moved in there, on a higher shelf since I access them only periodically.

One of the reasons that organizing principles are only guidelines is that you cannot necessarily follow them all, they can contradict each other. Then you need to make a choice about which one makes more sense for you – the user. In this case, the idea of keeping things together now seems better, though it didn’t start out that way.

We need to consider the space too. In my case, the closet was so handy that I was keeping lots of different things there. They got crowded, yet I could still get what I needed when I needed it. It was convenient. I could argue that I started using it for so much just because it was handy. Yet, if it’s so convenient, then I wanted to use it for the things that really mattered. I don’t want filing cabinets in my living room even if I do handle all mail and even do my pre-filing sorting here. This becomes even more important the smaller the space you have (a post coming soon on small spaces).

Although keeping things close to where you do them makes sense, questions that often get forgotten are – how often are you doing it and how elaborate is it? If it’s something you can easily pick up in one hand, you can simply pick it up and move it to another space without difficulty. I would cringe at the idea of someone lugging load after load of supplies to do something in another room.

It deserves it’s own post, but also things change, so what worked at one point does not necessarily continue to work. We need to be able to look at things with fresh eyes and see where we can improve how we’re using things and where we keep them. Don’t be afraid to break those organizing principles, it’s probably inevitable anyway!

Contagious Clutter

Have you ever heard of kipple? “When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you to go bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up there is twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.” Philip K. Dick in his book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which was made into the movie Blade Runner) said this. Sometimes I feel like this is not some futuristic possibility, but the reality we all face today.

It’s not independent of our behavior though. When I was in my first apartment, I would often need to spend a day or more picking it up and cleaning to be ready for my dad to visit. (See, I wasn’t always an organized person!) I’d plan that it’d never get that bad again, yet in that tiny studio apartment, one area would slowly start to collect clutter. Before I knew it, the other areas would be infected with other clutter.

Some of that was that there was nowhere in there that you could not see the rest of the space. When just a little bit of clutter starts to accumulate and you let it sit there, you are less likely to avoid dropping more clutter around. Just the sight of a little clutter lowers your response to adding to it. “It’s just a little more – and I’ll deal with it quickly later.”

And so it starts.

On some level this is unavoidable. We all have the pending stuff we’re trying to deal with – it can’t get put away completely yet, so you set it off to the side.

Do you then see the piles begin to build up? Whether it is from yourself or others in your home, it’s human nature to get a little “lazy” about adding to the piles. Some of the most organized people I know struggle with this phenomenon – and often they berate themselves for it.

The multiplying kipple can be that much worse for those who share their home, with a spouse, children, even a roommate! We all organize and manage our things differently, these differences can lure us into allowing the clutter to accumulate before our eyes and before we recognize it.

It comes down to maintainence. I’ve accepted that a certain number of piles will appear over the course of a week – though the sizes vary. What matters is what I do about it and what I tell my clients to do – make time weekly or even daily to deal with it. I also make a point to evaluate what is getting piled – What types of things are there? Do they have a home? Do they need a home? Am I frustrated with the things (and therefore not dealing with them)? Is there a better way?

Do I wish that there were never any piles? YES! We are not perfect, and at least according to Philip K. Dick, kipple is unavoidable. Therefore, I’m determined to limit the kipple and encourage others to keep their own kipple under manageable levels. ☺ Good Luck – don’t look away for too long since it does multiply when you’re not looking!

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cloud

Several years ago, I had a client who used her computer to schedule our appointments. Ok, that wasn’t too exciting – I’ve looked at the calendar apps on computers, but they weren’t really for me. Then she told me that she was using something different: Google calendar. What she loved about it was that her son also used Google calendar – it came with each of their gmail accounts – and they had linked their calendars together. He could see when she was on a business trip and needed his help taking care of her dog, and she could see when her grandson’s birthday party was and not forget the date. I wasn’t sure what I made of this at the time – I was still lugging around my large planner and using a pencil to mark appointments!

Then I got a smart phone where I had a calendar and could put my appointments in that. My shoulder certainly appreciated not lugging that planner around, yet accessing the calendar on the phone was not always convenient. If I was talking to someone and needed to consult my schedule, I either needed to put on the headset or use the speaker and hope that as I navigated this new device I would not inadvertently hang-up on the person.

This is when I started using Google calendar for myself. I could still use my phone to put appointments in, but I could also open up my computer, take the same information, and put in what I needed. Truthfully using the computer for Google calendar is easier – I have access to a full keyboard and scheduling repeating events is simpler. My husband started using Google calendar at the same time, and it provides an easy way for he and I to share our schedules with each other. If one of us wants to make plans for the night, we can check the other’s schedule to see if they’re available or not.

Google calendar was my first foray into cloud computing. The calendar is stored out on the Internet on a secure server, where it is backed up regularly. This is what is called the cloud. To access it, all I need is access to the Internet. All I need to do is log into Google with my e-mail user name and password, go to the calendar, and all my information is there. This is great because if I was visiting my mom and didn’t want to boot up my computer, I could just use hers. It is also wonderfully free and I’m actually saving money since I no longer need to buy a paper calendar for my purse.

It does not matter whether you use a PC or a Mac, Droid or iPhone, Google calendar will function with whatever you use it with. Some devices – like my phone – will even access it with their own calendar app. I helped a client learn about Google calendar recently – it will sync with her new smart phone and we set up her schedules, with a reminder beep to keep her on track. That ability to set an alarm, at the time you want, is another feature I really appreciate.

Too often, I’m a little paranoid about losing data. That is another reason I appreciate cloud computing, although there is always a risk of losing information – the information “living” out in the cloud means that it’s more likely to be accessible. In this case, if something were to happen to my phone, my appointments are available by using another device to access the Internet.

In my blog, I’ll be exploring a different cloud computing app each month. Here are a couple of the ones I’ll talk about fairly soon:

Delicious
Dropbox
Evernote

Soon, hopefully you, too, will learn to stop worrying (about your data) and love the cloud (computing). 🙂

Making Time Means Setting Priorities

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who thought they had enough time – at least at sometimes. It often feels like it just disappears. You’re working on something and think it will only take 20 minutes and before you know it, an hour has gone by. Often it’s just that there are many demands on your time – you have a family, a job, a home, and any number of other responsibilities. There just does not seem to be enough time in a day to do everything you want to do. We all have the same amount of time to manage and the bottom line is making priorities that fit your values.

First, a story about time that I really like and which has circulated the Internet.

The Bank Account of Time: Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!!!! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today. (I took the wording from here.)

In the previous blog, Take Time to Plan, I talked some about the importance of making time to plan and schedule things. This is an important part of the process of setting priorities since we all have limited time – and we need to try to be realistic about what we can accomplish.

The other part of this process is actually figuring out what your priorities are – and this means being aware of what your deep down values are. We need to align our priorities around the values we hold. Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says, “Organize and execute around priorities.”

We all have many priorities – you cannot just focus on one thing and ignore everything else. All the time you spend with family at the expense of your job is not realistic or even desirable! When you make time to consider your schedule and set some realistic plans, you’re aiming to make the most of the time you have. You’ll know that where you spend your time is where it’s best spent.

Often this requires that you alter some of your choices and often avoid immediate gratification. It also means thinking about the long-term and figuring out how to focus on the important things amidst all the demands that seem critical along the way. There are things that you will need to set aside, as you – or anyone – can do it all!

You’ll need to consider a chunk of time – this very day is too limited and this month is too large – so examine this week. Don’t over-schedule, this is not about filling every moment with an activity – but about setting aside to work on things that matter to you, to help you reach goals. You also want to make sure you include yourself in the plans – time for rejuvenation and growth. Most importantly, you need to make time to do this each week.

As such a complex topic, this is only the tip of the iceberg, yet starting even with this, you can take control of your time and spend it in meaningful ways. Each week offers you another opportunity to improve and learn more what you need and want from your life.

Make It Fun

Is fun missing from your life? I know I feel sometimes that life has become more drudgery than anything else. And the truth is that you need to find ways to bring real fun back into your life. Although I might be able to help inspire you to find some fun in general, right now, I want to talk about bringing a little fun to the various things that we need to do in our homes. If we can make our chores less tedious, we’ll be more likely to get them done.

I encourage you to brainstorm your own ideas for making things more fun. Therefore, to help get those creative juices flowing, I’ll share some of the ideas I’ve used and ones that have worked for others. Use them for yourself if they interest you.

I’ve mentioned before that I am not an avid cleaner. I also record TV shows to watch at a later point, often enjoying the ability to fast-forward through commercials. I now use those commercials as a perfect time to get some vacuuming done. I look up periodically to see when the show starts again. That is my cue to stop for the moment. I then use that time to move things either out of the way, or back into place. Our rooms are small, so the whole room is easily vacuumed within two commercial breaks. It doesn’t necessarily make it fun, but it does help it feel less tedious. It also stops the task from feeling overwhelming; I work at it for a limited amount of time and then stop for while.

Teamwork is a great way to make tasks more fun – even having company can help tasks feel more fun. This can work in several different ways – from the actually doing the work with someone else to simply working in the same area on different tasks. Another way to apply this idea is to have a phone buddy. Before starting anything, you talk on the phone, sharing what you’re each going to tackle and agree on a time to call back. You then hang up and begin your tasks. You can imagine what they are doing and can look forward to talking later. The key here is that if one of you doesn’t actually work on those tasks, you wait to talk.

I often play music while working on the various things around the house. I’ve heard back from clients that this has helped them as well. (It of course varies depending on the person.) Going through papers are one of the most tedious tasks, and surprisingly draining. One woman found that if she had music playing, she could sort papers for longer periods of time as it made it more enjoyable. As my music tastes are quite eclectic, I vary the type of music – considering my mood as well as my task.

Be sure to have different tools for bringing fun to your tasks, so that our fun things don’t become routine! Then it’s not fun anymore. Mix it up, have alternatives, and explore what works for you.

Of course, anytime we can make our tasks enjoyable, the more likely we are to get them done and feel good about it. I hope you will find ways to make your tasks fun – let your creative juices flow in finding ways that work for you. The holidays are here, and if we can employ ways to make the things we do more fun, it can only help us enjoy the holidays even more.