Last year around Christmas I had a stressful time making decisions. It seemed like each day when I went outside to collect my mail I received more party invitations requesting my presence at holiday events. At first I found it flattering. It wasn’t long, however, before the flattery turned into frustration as the party invitations kept arriving.

It got to the point where I had to sit down with the party invitations and do something very important: choose. There was no way that I could accept all of the party invitations and remain sane through the month of December. I had to begin declining party invitations and narrowing my schedule down to include only the events I really wished to attend. It might sound simple, but choosing is not so easy.

The first and most important way I narrowed my list was by thinking about the relationships I had with the people throwing each party. I made the decision to separate the party invitations I had received into piles based on my closeness to the hosts of the parties.

I also decided to narrow down party invitations by only allowing myself to schedule a certain number of events each week. That way I am not so busy with parties that I am unable to continue doing other important things.

Having said this, I may not get any invitations next year!