Trim Your List, Not Just the Tree

The holiday to-do list only ever grows: the gifts, the cards, the travel, the class party, the teacher presents, the magic. Most of it lands on one parent, often because she believes she's the only one who can do it (or that getting help is too much work).

When I worked in consulting, our projects were sold to clients without names -- just a placeholder for the junior team that said "Consultant." It felt a little insulting when I first saw that -- like I was an interchangeable cog, instead of a unique combination of experiences and skills. But after I had my first child, I began to see it as a gift: being interchangeable is what let me step away when I needed to, set boundaries, delegate, and take a stress-free parental leave.

At home, you're the only mother your kids have. For many aspects of the holiday list, though, you're likely interchangeable, and that's good news.

In this session, you'll learn:

• The Interchangeability Test: two questions that filter any task so you instantly know what's critical for you to own
• How to mentally subdivide a task into components, helping you distinguish between the parts only you can do and what can come off your list
• What to do about the tasks you think someone else could do, yet still can't quite let go of

You'll leave knowing which parts of your holiday list truly need you, and which you can start handing off this week.

This is a standalone event, thematically related to a small-group workshop with Jennifer (limited to 10 spots) on lightening your load to make room for the holidays: Deck the Halls, Drop Some Balls. The small-group content doesn't overlap with this session, so join us for both!

Led by Jennifer Mickel, founder of The Third Shift, a company that applies management frameworks to the mental load of parenthood. Jennifer is a mother of two, former MBB consultant, JD-MBA, and coach.