This 60-second hack will actually get your Christmas to-do list done.

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The festive season is upon us, and with it the endless roll-call of tasks and to-do lists that plague the Type Bs among us, while our Type A sisters sit back with an iced latte calmly scrolling their already-bought-and-itemised list of Christmas presents. 

The mental load of Christmas is intense — and perhaps even more so here in Australia than in other Northern Hemisphere countries, explains productivity coach and organisation expert Arwen Dropmann from Calm Space Professional Organising.

"When we're talking about Christmas in Australia, we're also talking about the end of the school year," she explained. 

"A lot of people are about to travel as well, so I think you get a bit of a perfect storm, because it's not just one big event — there are multiple big events, and they all have a lot of tasks and events associated. It's easy to see how a lot of us head towards that Christmas overwhelm."

Arwen, who works with clients in both personal and professional settings, says she gets an influx of requests for help around this time of year when the things people have been putting off all year suddenly feel more urgent. 

"My first piece of advice is to consider why the arbitrary deadline of Christmas has been attached to something," she explained. 

"It might not be necessary, and it might be adding to the overall stress of this period."

Watch: Why stop at Christmas organising? Check out this intervew with Organisational expert Anita Birges on decluttering kids toys. Post continues below.

And while Arwen believes that "an organised Christmas starts in October" (she's one of those Type A people I mentioned earlier), all hope is not lost when it comes to the procrastinating stragglers among us.

Yes, it is possible to plan a fabulous Christmas as a Type B human, even without having Arwen move temporarily into your house (trust me, I already asked) — particularly because this year, we have more access than ever to a secret weapon: AI.

But first, a caveat:

"I really don't want women to give up their agency, thinking that AI can do this in a way that they can't," said Arwen, "I think it can augment what we can do, but we already have, usually, a lot of practice and wisdom to tap into."

Make your prompt as unique as your family.

"Every family is unique", said Arwen, "which means every Christmas is going to have its own unique set of circumstances. I'd start off by prompting ChatGPT with the type of holiday you're planning. Is it a big Christmas? Are we doing minimalist Christmas? What are your values? What's important to you? Do you love all the traditions? Do you like it really modern? Are you doing something with a friend-family instead of relatives?"

Example prompt: 

I want to host Christmas for 18 people. I'll have a family of four staying for the three days beforehand and two days afterwards, and we're hoping to share the cooking load. We like an Australian-style Christmas lunch, served outdoors, with a lot of seafood and salad. I also want to cook a special meal on Christmas Eve, although this will only be for 12 people (4 kids). What are some of the checklists and organisation strategies I need to have in place? 

Check for blind spots.

Another great use of AI is to check your own thinking for areas you might have failed to plan for. 

"I actually tried this yesterday," said Arwen, "I asked ChatGPT to tell me some of the things that people often forget to factor in at Christmas time."

Example prompt: 

Here's my plan for Christmas Day, and for the days leading up to it. What are some things I might have left off the list? What are some common traps for people that lead to Christmas overwhelm?

Build a work-flow.

"When I'm working with people around productivity, basically it's about doing the right thing at the right time," Arwen explains. "So we want to know what's coming towards us so we are prepared to do the right thing at the right time," she said.

"A lot of people get hung up on time management, but it's also about energy management. If we leave everything to the last minute, we may not have time or energy when it comes to the crunch."

Example prompt:

Starting from today, please plot out a timeline of what I will have to do each day (and when) in order to have all of the elements ready for Christmas. Take into account things like domestic shipping cutoff dates for sending presents, online ordering delays, meal planning and ordering specialty items like turkey or seafood.

Manage tricky conversations and family members

"Using AI for diplomatic text and email drafting is an excellent strategy at Christmas," Arwen explained, "because often we're dealing with a number of tricky personalities and family dynamics." She says asking AI to help you with correspondence about who to delegate meals to, how to ensure people tell you early what their plans are, and navigating issues around gift-giving or budgets can all be made easier.

Example prompt:

I want to send a group email to the family to ask in a diplomatic, friendly way about their plans for Christmas Day. I want to make sure everyone feels welcome and included, but I also want to convey that it's important for my plans that they let me know with some notice. I also want to bring up the issue of a Secret Santa, and what the cash limit should be. Again, I don't want to make anyone feel pressured, so I want my language and tone to convey this.

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Plan out a schedule for the day.

"One thing AI is not so good at is anticipating very human interruptions to the schedule," Arwen said. 

"My number one organisational strategy is that things always take longer than you expect them to take. You might have a kid sitting on the bottom of the stairs and they won't get in the car and they're having a meltdown because their sock feels weird - next minute, your schedule just went out the window!

"Alternatively, you then have a screaming child and everyone's stressed. I think if we're talking about reducing overwhelm, it's about allowing time for things to take longer, and planning for that so that even if you get every traffic light on the way to Christmas lunch, you're not freaking out because you've factored it in."

Example prompt:

People are arriving at noon for a Christmas lunch that will hopefully be ready by 2pm. Beforehand, when they arrive, I'd like to have a cheese board and snacks on the table for them. Our kids wake up at around 5:30am on Christmas morning, so presents will probably take an hour and a half, then I'd like to build in some time for them to play and relax. Understanding that Christmas has the potential for a lot of things to run over schedule or not go to plan, please build out a timeline that takes in when I need to get each element of the meal in the oven, and how I can make sure the kids aren't too overstimulated while I do it.

Feature Image: Getty.