5 More Ways PK Helps for the Holidays

Preparing for the holidays involves dozens of details. Recovering from the holidays involves dozens more. Personal Knowbase can help you manage your information to keep your plans running smoothly from year to year to year.

Previously, we offered five ways that Personal Knowbase can help you during the holidays. Here are five more ideas:

1) Incoming and Outgoing Gifts

Keep track of what gifts you gave out each year to jog your memory and avoid duplication. In the case of consumable gifts, this can also provide ideas for future repeat gifts.

Then keep track of what gifts you receive each year to help you remember who gave you what, avoiding the embarrassment of not remembering who to thank. And to remind you to wear that ugly sweater that Aunt Joan gave you the next time you see her.

2) Clothing Lists

If you're concerned about wearing the same clothes when you see the same people, record what you wore to each party or event. Avoid the situation of relatives thinking you only own one outfit.

I also make notes of ideas for what to wear to future events — which outfits are better for restaurant events, which are good choices for events at houses I know are cold, and what I might want to wear because a specific person gifted me with it. This includes notes about which jewelry goes well with which outfit.

3) Decorations Lists

Keep lists of decorations and supplies. Note where they're stored. Record processes like preparing, checking lights, and setting up a Christmas tree.

Make notes about lessons learned about how things work... and how they don't work. Did you find out that only one extension cord worked for your outdoor lights? Or that you couldn't fit a tree over a certain height and still use your favorite tree-topper? We always think we'll remember these problems from year to year. Sometimes we don't.

4) Holiday Card Lists

If you don't use specialized contact management software for contact lists, a freeform note manager like Personal Knowbase is handy for keeping holiday card and newsletter lists. Whom did you send to last year? Who sent to you last year that you might want to add to your list? If you sent out more than one card design, to whom did you send which design? Record your card lists and link these to your contact lists.

5) Reminders

Personal Knowbase includes a feature for adding reminders to individual notes. Some ideas for adding reminders:

• To your card list, note the latest date by which you need to buy cards.
• To your clothing records, remind yourself if you need to do dry-cleaning.
• To your gift list, add the latest date you need to order & ship gifts by.
• To your contact lists, remember when you need to send invitations.