11/12/2025
Today’s post is inspired by a chat with a friend about the busyness of the festive period, and how many plates we are spinning.
This time of year can make every task feel urgent, important, and impossible to ignore. Gifts to buy, food to prep, social plans, school activities, family commitments… plus the everyday life stuff that never stops.
This is where the ‘Eisenhower Matrix’ comes in - a deceptively simple tool first used by President Eisenhower, and later popularised by Stephen Covey in ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.’
This is a priority matrix that helps us sort tasks based on importance and urgency, so we can move from frantic reactivity to intentional, values-led choices.
If your brain is buzzing, try using this matrix to bring some calm back into the season - see image for my quickly penned, slightly tweaked version.
* First write down everything - festive tasks, life admin, emotional load, all of it.
* Then step away. Make a brew, fold some laundry, take a moment.
* Come back and sort each item into the four boxes:
🔴 Do First – tasks/activities that are genuinely urgent and important.
🟠 Schedule - tasks/activities that are important, but not urgent.
🟢 Delegate - things that need doing, but not necessarily by you.
🟡 Don’t Do - things that don’t truly matter (even if they’ve ‘always’ been done).
And here’s the Christmas twist…
During this season, it’s easy to treat everything as urgent and important, but not everything is urgent, and not everything is important.
Alongside focusing on what truly needs to happen, ask yourself:
✨ What can I lovingly let go of this year?
The traditions that cause stress, the tasks that drain you, the expectations you’re carrying alone - they’re allowed to move into the ‘Ditch’ box.
This exercise helps you:
✔️ Organise your tasks.
✔️ Reduce festive overwhelm.
✔️ See clearly what actually matters.
✔️ Release the pressure to ‘do it all.’
This season doesn’t need you to do it all - it needs you to be well.
Do yourself a favour, spend 10 mins of your week completing the matrix to lighten your load, and to enjoy the parts of the festive period that matter the most.
Laura x
