The holidays are coming, and you dream of filling your home with the aroma of baking cookies, simmering wassail and roasted goose. But 30 frustrating minutes of clattering pots later, with no sign of the roasting pan or cooling racks in sight, you’re already reaching for the catering menus. 

Stop! Before you throw in the dish towel, seize this holiday opportunity to create an efficient kitchen that encourages cooking and makes clean-up a piece of cake. Invest a mere 6-8 hours organizing now, and you’ll reap the benefits all year long. 

It takes different people different amounts of time to do the identical task.

Once you know you how long it takes you to do something, you may decide it’s a better use of the world’s resources to have someone else do a certain task. A “do-it-all-yourself” mentality can be a big time trap.

Good time managers calculate how long things take and build the time they need into their schedules. This is not a mysterious talent that some people are born with and you lack. It’s a simple skill anyone can learn.

Good time managers make a conscious decision to figure out how long a task will take. They simply ask themselves that question. This is a big missing link for the rest of us who say, “Okay, I’m going to do these twelve things tomorrow,” without ever pausing to consider how long each task will take.

It’s November. And along with cold weather and shopping trips, this is the month when all the parties begin. When time is tight and you have guests coming for a party you don’t want to exhaust or stress yourself by trying to make your house perfect.  But you do want your home to be welcoming, and to feel confident having people over. The best way to achieve that is to focus on spot organizing key areas of your home which your guests are most likely to see—each area should take no more than 30-60 minutes to get in shape.