In this episode, I share day three of the Cosy Christmas Plan-Along: plan your time. You can listen to the episode below or keep scrolling to read the key takeaways from today.

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Day Four

• Today we are going to bring the last 3 days together and see where you have spare time to fit your hobby in. So first step is to get your calendar back out.
• First, look at your hobbies that you are planning to do in the season and see if there are any that are “one off”. For example, the wreath making workshop I have mentioned throughout this plan-along. If one off hobby events like this aren’t in your calendar yet, put them in now.
• Now look at the notes you made yesterday. Are there any hobbies that have specifics around them? For example, reading paperback books on a Saturday afternoon. Put them into your calendar now, especially hobbies that have certain days/times with them.
• If you work shifts or have any overtime over the season go ahead and put that in your calendar now too but you don’t have to put in any regular working days if they’re not changing.
• Now take your calendar day by day and see where you can fit your hobby in each day. Start with the first day you chose your Christmas season to be. For my it was Sunday 23rd November and I know I am usually pretty free in the morning on Sunday’s so I scheduled some time for my hobby in the morning. Then I went to Monday the 24th, Tuesday, etc.
• If your days are quite similar week to week, for example every Monday is the same, every Friday is the same then it can be easier to make your hobby time the same time every week on those days. For example, I could see I had the first 4 Monday evenings of my season free so I went ahead and scheduled hobby time for every Monday evening.
• After all your days are filled, you can go in and decide what hobby will take place during that time you have scheduled. You can use the notes you made yesterday to see what hobbies fit best on what days.
• Something I would like to challenge you to try over the Christmas season is to find one hour a week, uninterrupted, to yourself. And I want you to add some extra intentionality to this time. Light a candle, grab a snack, turn the fairy lights on – set the mood a little. With this I recommend putting an exact time on it and treat it as an appointment with yourself.
• An even bigger challenge, if you can swing it, is to take a full day for yourself just once over the season. Book it off work, do it when the kids are in school, etc and just spend the day relaxing with your hobbies.
• One thing to be wary of is over stuffing your calendar. Leave yourself some “white space” to allow for things to change if they need to. Don’t give yourself too much to do, even if it’s hobbies! Give yourself moments where there is nothing to do and allow yourself time to just choose what you’re in the mood to do.
• If you look at your calendar and you’re not happy with how much hobby time you are getting this season, you might need to take some things off your plate. Delegate, say no, move things around, ask for help, etc.

And that is it for today. Tomorrow we will be chatting about the extras we can do whilst doing our hobby.

Happy planning!

Extra episodes and posts

• How to Make a Cross Stitch Routine
• How to have a Christmas Retreat Day
• How to Organise Your WIP Projects
• Why I wrote a cross stitch book
• Hobbies I’m Planning This Christmas