Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that holidays and birthdays aren't surprises. Plan ahead
Speaker 1: and you can avoid needless scrambling. So in life, some
Speaker 1: emergency shopping is inevitable. A sick kid needs medicine, you're
Speaker 1: out of a key ingredient for a dinner. You have
Speaker 1: already started making it happens. But I have always been
Speaker 1: fascinated by those scenes of last minute Christmas shoppers, or
Speaker 1: people who have to pay premium prices and face limited
Speaker 1: selection when they are shopping on Valentine's Day for a
Speaker 1: sweetheart who expects something on Valentine's Day? Did you not
Speaker 1: see this coming? Is Christmas or your anniversary not on
Speaker 1: the same day every year. Perhaps people don't actually want
Speaker 1: to do anything special for holidays, and the last minute
Speaker 1: shopping is a protest. But if you are going to
Speaker 1: do it, best to realize that holidays and birthdays are
Speaker 1: never surprises, so build them into the rhythm of your life.
Speaker 1: Most electronic calendars will let you program in recurring dates,
Speaker 1: so if you haven't put in the birthdays of your
Speaker 1: close friends, family, members and colleagues. Go do that right now.
Speaker 1: I'll wait. If ten years from now you are no
Speaker 1: longer speaking with Joan from work, you can take her
Speaker 1: birthday off your calendar the next time you see it.
Speaker 1: But for most people who will be in your life
Speaker 1: long term, there is no downside to making such a note.
Speaker 1: You might also put a reminder for any holiday celebrations
Speaker 1: where you will be expected to do something. If you
Speaker 1: are usually the one buying Halloween costumes, you can put
Speaker 1: a note in mid October to ask your kids what
Speaker 1: they'd like to be, or give them a deadline for choosing.
Speaker 1: I have noticed that our Easter baskets are a bit lacking,
Speaker 1: so I put a note for a few weeks before
Speaker 1: Easter next year to remind myself to rectify that situation.
Speaker 1: You can also generally get in the habit of scanning
Speaker 1: the next week or two when you do your weekly planning,
Speaker 1: so you can build anything in. If you see that
Speaker 1: your grandmother's birthday is in a week, you've got time
Speaker 1: to get the card in the mail. You also have
Speaker 1: to procure necessary supplies without extra trips. If your neighborhood
Speaker 1: always has a Fourth of July party that you help organize,
Speaker 1: and you are in target on June thirty, why not
Speaker 1: just go ahead and grab those red, white, and blue
Speaker 1: plates so you're not fighting everyone for them on July three,
Speaker 1: or worse, the morning of July four. In any case,
Speaker 1: a great many important dates happen every year at the
Speaker 1: same time. They are never surprises, so think about what's
Speaker 1: coming up and think about what you need to do
Speaker 1: ahead of time. Avoiding just one emergency target or post
Speaker 1: office run can probably save you an hour of time
Speaker 1: and frustration. In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our times. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.