During this busy holiday season, I use project management principles to help me prioritize and stay organized so it can be a happy holiday for the entire family – including me. Here are some tips and tricks that I use to make this season manageable. They involve bundling tasks, prepping in advance, automating, rescheduling, and outsourcing.

• BUNDLE TASKS 🛍️: I try to get as much done as I can in advance, like stocking up on holiday supplies when I’m out on other errands. I make a list of the supplies I currently need (wrapping paper, specialty foods, gifts) and add these items to my regular shopping list. I recommend getting your shopping done as early as possible, especially this year, due to the global supply chain issues. Pick up a few gifts while you’re out running other errands now so you don’t have to make a separate trip later or risk the item going out of stock.

• PREP IN ADVANCE 🥧: Some tasks can be done ahead of time so you’re not as rushed later, such as preparing and freezing food in advance. My sister just made several pie crusts and put them in her freezer. You can do that too; make and freeze pie crust, cookies, and other goodies now so you’re ready to roll throughout the holidays. As a bonus, a caterer I once worked for found that their cookies tasted better if the dough was frozen before baking!

• AUTOMATE 📬: Some holiday tasks can be at least partially automated. I automated the process of sending out Christmas cards a few years ago, which has been a game-changer. To do that, I typed all my addresses into a company’s website, and now I just pay them a small fee every year to address and mail the envelopes with that year’s Christmas card. For me, it’s worth the money because I’m not stressing out addressing all the envelopes myself and trekking to the post office to get holiday-themed stamps when the line is out the door!

• RESCHEDULE 🏝️: Ask yourself if a particular activity has to be done during the busy holiday season or can be postponed. We decided to move my son’s birthday party with his friends to the summer and have an informal family party on his actual birthday in December. This gave us more options for where to have his “main” party, since he often wants to have it at a pool or another outside location. Plus, it was easier to schedule for us and other families, taking the pressure off to organize another event during the busy holiday season.

• OUSTOURCE & RELAX 🍪: During this time of year, I need to keep an eye on my perfectionistic tendencies and realize that my sleep and happiness are more important than homemade everything. (This is difficult for someone who used to work in professional pastry kitchens.) So yes, I do buy cookies (Trader Joe’s and Costco have great options) and don’t tell my neighbors when I wrap them up in my own baggies :->. I also order some of the other holiday food. Fortunately, my husband encourages me to find ways to keep my sanity, and he pretty much likes anything with sugar.

All these tips are based on the project management concept of constraints: Although you have a limited amount of time and resources, when the amount of work (like holiday preparations) is more than you can fit in, you can make changes. If you don’t have the time or energy to make homemade everything, outsource the work by buying premade baked goods or paying someone else to mail the holiday cards. If outsourcing doesn’t fit your budget, reduce the amount of work by (for example) not handing out cookies or cards. My wise mother-in-law other only sends holiday cards every other year. It’s ok to pull back, and fewer cookies won’t hurt anyone. (Their waistlines may even thank you later.)

We need to prioritize our self-care, especially after these tough pandemic years. Remember that the holidays are supposed to be a celebration, not a chore. Let’s give ourselves some grace and time to enjoy them.

Hilary Kinney is the author of Project Management for Parents, a timeless book that provides resources for busy parents to streamline life at home. She is a certified Professional Project Manager with 17 years of experience at a Fortune 500 company.