We asked some of our favorite Savvy Business Owners how they handle the craziness of the holidays on top of their already crazy business responsibilities. What are their top tips and ideas for making the holiday season more manageable? They had so many great thing to share, we are having to split it up over a few days to share all the goodness! Don't miss the other posts in this series.

holiday hacks for the busy entrepreneur - belong magazine blog

AMANDA BEILKE shares...

The holiday season is truly the most wonderful time of the year! There are cookies in the oven baking, nights spent watching holiday movies like ELF with your family, or evenings out with friends enjoying local community events. Usually it really is a warm and wonderful season until you forget this, that, or the other thing. You have over scheduled yourself again, or you feel anxiety and stress over all the different things you are trying to juggle during the holidays on top of your day to day demands of running your business. All while trying to avoid extreme FOMO by not doing ALL of the things!

I’ve got a two part solution for you that comes from the heart and yet is so practical that anyone can put this into place this holiday season! It’s the compassionate “no” coupled with the Christmas calendar. When you use these two together, this is where the magic happens!

The Compassionate "No"

The compassionate “no” is all about learning how to set boundaries in your life and making time for the things that truly matter. It’s a great way to set priorities, manage expectations, eliminate resentment and create more time for the things you truly love during this season. Plus, you gain more confidence each time you set a new boundary and give a loving “no” to the things that don’t serve you in your life. Make a goal for yourself of identifying who or what your top 5 priorities are for this holiday season. If something comes up that doesn’t align with your top 5 priorities then I challenge you to really ask yourself if that is something you want to be allocating your limited amount of time to. If someone asks me to do something or go somewhere, It has to be a “heck yes” reaction from me otherwise I know I need to give it a “Big No” and move on to the things that really matter to me.

The Christmas Calendar

The second part of this two step Christmas magic formula is the Christmas calendar. This is a calendar you create specifically and for only your holiday activities and plans for the month of December. You start off by printing out a big calendar for the whole month to post in your kitchen or your at home command center. Next, you take your priorities list created in step one to decide what activities you absolutely want to make time for this holiday season and get those on your calendar right away! After you schedule your priorities, you schedule a couple nights of “free time” that you utilize for any holiday events that come up that you would like to do with your family or friends. Lastly, create a list of all the fun holiday activities you would enjoy doing like driving around looking at Christmas lights, going out for hot cocoa, writing out hand written Christmas cards, and so on. Then when people invite you to get together you can suggest an activity from this list of things you already know you love doing or you can pick any activity from this list for your scheduled “free nights.”

Jingle bells, Christmas shopping, and warm family gatherings are right around the corner. Get excited for this wonderful time of the year because now you have the two step Christmas magic formula to create more time during the holidays for the things you love while still finding the time to manage your business.

Amanda Beilke is a Life Coach. She coaches ambitious women in helping them identify their core values and purpose, in order to align those with meaningful work in a fantastic career so that they can feel completely authentic, confident, empowered, and full of joy in how they are living their lives. Amanda is passionate about identifying what excites you, living with intention each moment of the day, and not shying away from creating and living your best life. Amanda is a Minnesotan now residing in the Twin Cities. To learn more about Amanda and her mission, go to www.amandabeilke.com Now is the time to turn your dreams into reality