Help me get through the next two weeks of holiday season madness

November 24, 2023 1:31 PM

As a small business owner, this season has already been wildly busy, but I’d love some suggestions for how to make it through until my last event on December 9 without fully burning out.

In the next two weeks, I have back to back events, things due, etc. I’m currently recovering from an illness and have the next two days to fully rest at home.

My schedule includes finishing an application for a fellowship, working part time at my partner’s shop, working a major event at a mall (god help me) on behalf of his business, teaching an art workshop an hour away (and prepping for it), setting up for a holiday market and running the market the next day, painting ornaments for a local wholesale order, running an online shop update, attending an infertility appointment, printing about 75 art pieces for Patrons and mailing them out, setting up a workshop listing, and shipping orders. This is after staying home from vending at a 2 day holiday market this weekend due to aforementioned illness.

How do you manage your sanity when you’ve got an overflowing plate? How do you focus on and finish many things without losing your mind or burning out? I need all your life hacks.

I think I’m sick now because of pushing myself a little too much, so I’m hoping to avoid that for the rest of this year. I’ve been trying to minimize what actually NEEDS to be done, and take things off my plate that can wait. And I always prioritize sleep. I’m looking forward to taking on a lot less next holiday season. My last event is December 9 and after that I am home free and will probably sleep for 55 years.

posted by sucre to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Best answer: I would sit down with your partner and lay out that onslaught with him. Does he have other help that he could pull in for things like working his shop and the mall event? Can he be responsible for getting you to and from your doctor appointment and keeping track of your medical history stuff? Can he help with workshop prep or printing or website stuff or transporting you places?

When you’re sick and recovering, having company and help for all the little things can make all the difference. Things like having meals ready, being driven places so you can focus on final prep and details instead of navigation, morning or evening chores being handled so you can get an extra chunk of sleep, or even being brought medication instead of having to remember about it can all add up. Rely on your local support for some of these. Would any of your friends be glad of the chance to help you out by bringing by some meals or driving you places or being another set of hands for your organizing and mailing? Do you or your partner have connections to a university or highschool where you guys might find a competent temporary assistant?

As one big chunk, I would think about the wholesale order. Is it something that could be canceled and reimbursed without a big loss of a positive business relationship? Do you know another artist who would be happy to take on a similar order that you could vigorously recommend? You have to weigh the profit from the order and the stress of making it and the potential loss of customers and all that together, but it is the thing that stands out to me from your list.

I say that because that, the workshop, and your doctor appointment seem to be the things that require you specifically to be the person accomplishing them, and those are both single day events. This order would presumably be multiple days of very focused physical work. Your other multi day activities could theoretically be accomplished by hired help once you’ve instructed them or if they have relevant experience, like organizing markets, running a booth shop, updating your website, printing and packing orders and mailing them… with enough money and extra hands to throw at those problems, you or the people who are expecting you could manage in time.

The other thing that sticks out to me is anything relating to your patreon. You can communicate on the platform to your patrons and ask for some grace. Include some small bonuses with your prints and delay the printing and mailing. You could also send a high quality file for them to print out on their own right away. Things happen and in my experience patrons expect a few speed bumps and glitches now and again, and are especially forgiving if you communicate clearly.

Please spend the next couple days in healing cocoon! I’m rooting for you!
posted by Mizu at 2:21 PM on November 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I know my limits and could not take on that much work. I'm also in my 70s so there's that...I don't have any constructive help, but could you share a link of any work you have that is for sale?...If that is allowed of course...
posted by Czjewel at 3:14 PM on November 24, 2023

Best answer: Can you ask a friend (or pay a friend/friend’s family member) to tackle the patreon?
posted by samthemander at 3:22 PM on November 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If it's biologically feasible, rebook the infertility appointment to January. Stress interferes with fertility treatments.
posted by heatherlogan at 5:40 PM on November 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I’ve just come out of a similar two weeks, and will have another mad week in mid-December. My sympathies, this kind of cadence is not kind but sometimes it is necessary.

Others have given excellent advice about what to shift off of yourself, if anything can shift.

If that’s not the case, I would focus on nutrition and sleep (in that order) as the scaffolding of the next fortnight. Make sure you are eating good, healthy, plentiful food. This might involve meal prep over the next few days. I had little Ziploc bags of dates and nuts, a fridge full of chopped-up veggies, canned pulses and fish, and a few things in the freezer. Forcing myself to pause and eat three meals a day (instead of cruising by on coffee and pastries until noon, snacking through the afternoon, and having takeout at night) made a significant difference.

Good luck, you’re nearly at the finish line!
posted by third word on a random page at 6:50 PM on November 24, 2023

Best answer: Much of your obligations have set, inflexible times (i.e. workshop, mall gig, appointment) but make sure you schedule as much as possible of the more flexible tasks so that you can do work that require thinking (ie fellowship writing, prepping workshop) at peak energy, less tired times of day, and easier, more intuitive tasks when you're running out of steam. You'll spend less time overall on activities like writing if you tackle them when your brain is working best.
Also make sure to plan your travel for efficiency, ie, if you need to go to the P.O. do it on the way to the mall or doctor, etc. Make as few trips as possible.
posted by ojocaliente at 1:04 AM on November 25, 2023

Best answer: Assuming you have already done everything you can do to delegate or decline or postpone work and you just need to get through it, I find it helpful to spend time carefully planning busy periods to ensure important things (like eating!) are not forgotten and to make things happen as efficiently as possible. Outline how you plan to spend each day, how you'll get food and rest, how you can reduce travel inefficiencies, etc. Consider whether the ornament work will go best in small doses or all at once, and whether there are energy-providing things you can do to multitask during any of this (for example, if you can ask a friend to keep you company or use a foot massager while doing something else on your list). Also, if there are any drugs which help you get through, consider using them temporarily. I use modafinil for energy; friends use miscellaneous drugs to help them sleep when stressed.
posted by metasarah at 11:03 AM on November 25, 2023

Response by poster: This is all so helpful. Thank you everyone! The infertility appt is just a consult, no treatment thankfully, and we’ll both be attending. I knocked out an hour of ornament work last night. Letting Patrons know their art mail may be late is a great thing to do. They’ll understand. And my partner is also up to his ears in work, since it’s the busiest time of year at his shop and the event at the mall is really intense preparation wise. But we’ll make it through!

A new neighbor friend is bringing over homemade Tantanmen ramen broth with udon so I am over the moon about that.

Thanks again all! I feel better about this schedule just processing it with you all.

Edit: here is my website! Art
posted by sucre at 1:29 PM on November 25, 2023 [5 favorites]