Getting Organized For the Holiday Season with Microsoft Office 365

Getting Organized During Holidays and afterwards during the new year can be a huge hurdle. It might seem daunting from where you sit looking out over your mound of papers on that messy dining room table or office desk, but here’s the thing you just need to break it down and make it work.

Getting organized is the key to a happy, stress-free holiday. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or something else, getting organized and staying organized is the best way to enjoy the holiday season. Happily for you, I have a few thoughts and tips on how to get and stay organized this holiday season and well into the New Year.

5 Tips for Getting Organized and Staying Organized

If you fly through the holidays by the seat of your pants, chances are you’ll miss at least some of the fun. It’s much better to do a little planning and keep your sanity intact during the holiday season. I use Microsoft Office 365 to help keep my life organized over the holidays and everyday.

With Microsoft Office 365, getting organized is easy. Office 365 is the Office we all know and love, only better. It has all our favorites like Word, Outlook, and Excel. It also has new additions to the lineup like Skype, OneDrive, and Sway to help us get things down anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

This is One Subscription I Can’t Live Without

Because it’s a subscription service, it’s always up to date, and it can be installed on up to 5 PCs and Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 phones. This cross-platform productivity makes getting organized easier than ever because I can use my Office tools to manage my life on the go.

And I love that it’s available on Mac. Yay! It’s a little known fact about Mac products – you pretty much aways need to still add Microsoft Office software for business or simply for organizing. It’s the first software product I bought for the MacBook immediately after my laptop purchase. Not negotiable.

1: Track Expenses 

We keep an eye on our expenses year round, but during the holidays, we’re extra vigilant about finances. It’s all too easy to spend more than you think. I use Excel to track expenses and keep my Christmas budget on track. It’s a great way for me to quickly and easily view and manage my Christmas shopping budget.

2: Manage Shopping

I do the majority of the holiday shopping in our home, but my husband has taken the initiative at times and surprised me by helping. We use OneNote to manage shopping lists so that my husband’s help is, actually, helpful. If either one of us finds a great deal on a holiday item, we just cross it off the list, and it’s instantly viewable on OneNote across all devices.

3: Manage the Calendar

Getting organized during the holidays means time management, as well. With Outlook, I can easily manage my family’s calendar. That’s doubly important for the holidays. Between school events, holiday parties, and figuring out what we’re bringing to our various Christmas get togethers, things can get confusing. With Outlook, we can keep it all straight. Beside Outlook is still the standard across businesses as well. So it’s pretty much necessary for personal and business use.

4: Homework

Keeping track of homework is definitely a big part of getting organized and staying organized over the holidays. There’s enough going on this time of year without having to worry about homework and projects that haven’t been done. My kids use Word and OneDrive to keep track of homework, and in many cases, complete it. My oldest is just getting into PowerPoint a bit now in high school. In fact she has one of her first PPT assignments due next week. My younger daughter is not yet there. She actually opts to use OneNote often.

5: Get Help

One of the biggest keys to getting organized and staying organized for the holidays is getting help. Everything should be a group effort, from the shopping down to the cooking and cleaning. Send your husband out for ingredients, while you prepare for the cooking. Have the kids clean the house. And don’t forget that Microsoft Office 365 can be a huge asset for you and the family.

Microsoft Office 365 Makes Getting Organized Easier

I have kids, a blog, a husband, a successful consulting business, and a hundred other things on top of that, so anything that can help me with getting organized is always welcome. Office 365 is a great tool in my toolkit that makes getting organized and staying organized easier than ever.

[tweetthis]Getting organized doesn’t have to be tricky with Microsoft Office 365 and a few tips. [/tweetthis]

With Microsoft Office 365 and its huge variety of productivity tools, getting organized is easy, and I can enjoy the holidays a bit easier rather that try to manage the stress of them.

Starting TODAY, November 26^th, as part of Microsoft’s great Black Friday deals, Office 365 Home and Student will be available for $89.00 (or $69.00 with the purchase of any PC). Additional product details and Office deals can be found here.

[tweetthis]Do not miss Microsoft’s great Black Friday deals, Office 365 Home and Student will be available for $89.00 (or $69.00 with the purchase of any PC).[/tweetthis]

This post was generously sponsored by Microsoft. My opinion is all my own and it is truthful.