Plan Your Down Time

You know the day before Thanksgiving you'll be crazy busy, either cooking or trying to clear paperwork off your desk in anticipation of the holiday. You know the Saturdays before Christmas will be packed with shopping, family events, work parties.

So when will you get an hour to yourself, once a week (if not once a day?) When will you get to go the Y for a swim? When will you get to sit in the Borders coffee shop and read a magazine? When will you get to hide in your basement and tie flies?

Yes, in an ideal world, we'd just DO these things. But in the real world, you may really have to write "tie flies" on your calendar. It doesn't matter if it seems silly--it works.

Give yourself six hours between now and Christmas day to spend in total freedom, absolutely alone doing exactly what makes you happy and feel relaxed. Then schedule them in now in ink. Six hours out of the next one thousand or so is not too much to ask to keep your sanity.