If we consider each family as a nice team consisting of several strong team players, then we can also consider the holiday hustle season a real challenge for them. And in order for the team to cope with the hustle, they should view it as a project; let’s call it ”The holiday hustle determination and avoidance project.” Some project management methodologies may be quite useful here, like “Waterfall” for example.
With ”Waterfall” more stress is put on the logical succession of project parts. In other words, the team does not pass onto other stages of a project, until they are done with the given one. This project is thus planned step-by-step or level-by-level for the team to complete all the stages gradually one after one. This is a perfect PM methodology to manage the holiday stuff. Let us now look at what stages the project may have:
Initiation
Let the brainstorming begin! In this stage, the family should decide what they need to do, make, buy, and find for the holidays. Hence, gather around the dinner table and write down anything related to the New Year and Christmas that comes to your mind. Do not overlook the remarks of the smaller family members; quite often they give really useful advice. Following are some things you can take into account when brainstorming:
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Deciding what to wear
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Creating the gift list
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Doing Christmas shopping
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Wrapping the presents
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Creating Christmas playlist and movie list
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Preparing special food and drinks
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Decorating the house and the yard
You can, of course, add up some more cool ideas to this list. Just make sure everyone is involved in the process.
Planning and Design
Here, you should be more exact as to:
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How much money you should spend:
Calculate your monthly family budget as well as savings meant for the holiday season and the gifts and see what you can do with them.
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Who will do what?
If you have children, then, most probably, you will be buying presents for the kids first of all. And, accordingly, you will be wrapping the presents secretly. As for the other gifts, make sure you wrap them with your children. Christmas cooking very often involves preparing a chicken and a few nice salads. However, you can find some fresh new recipes to surprise your guests with.
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What schedule should be chosen?
If all family members are working, then Christmas shopping hours would be after 6 p.m most probably. You can also choose to do the shopping during the weekends.
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What will be the succession of actions?
Deciding what to wear and creating the Christmas playlist may be in the first two places of your plan. Then, Christmas shopping may come followed by gift wrapping and then decorating the house. However, make sure you do not leave preparing the food to the last minute.
Execution and Testing
In this stage, you implement your plan and then test it. In your case, that could involve making sure you followed all the steps indicated in the plan. For example, you can check whether you bought exactly the same toy for your little boy as mentioned in his letter to Santa. Or you can double-check the gift boxes to make sure you didn’t confuse your wife’s present with the one meant for your Mom (it could be rather confusing, especially if you decide to gift sexy lingerie to your wife and it appears in your mother’s gift box by mistake).
In this stage of project management, you can already start and finish with home decoration and check whether there is anything missing or not.
Monitoring and closing
This will be the final stage of your project management initiative. As soon as you see everyone gathered around the beautifully decorated Christmas table with the candles burning and the food smelling awesomely, you can be sure your project was a success. Make sure everyone in the house:
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Wears a Santa hat
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Has a gift of some kind
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Is a little bit drunk with wine (or drunk in love, whatever comes first)
Here you are; project management is everywhere! You can also use other project management methodologies in case you have a more complex holiday hustle avoidance project. If you decide to make use of the ”waterfall” methodology, we would like to learn about your experience. Hence, we highly encourage you to describe it all in the comments’ section. As for now, we wish you Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas. Let all your projects succeed and your businesses thrive!
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