Kelly HubbelL helps you manage your holiday to-do list

Well the holidays are supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year but for many parents it can feel like a second full-time job. From buying gifts to planning meals and remembering every little detail there is an invisible to-do list running non-stop in someone's head. Kelly Hubbell, CEO of Sage House, is here to help us lighten that mental load before the holiday stress takes over. Kelly, good morning. You're right on time for me here. How are you? Good morning. I'm wonderful. Thanks for having me. Yes, you're speaking my language here on what I need to know. And I know a lot of people do because, you know, we're talking about the holiday to-do list, but we're actually talking about something bigger than just the tasks themselves. Describe for us what this invisible mental load is and why it seems to get just so much worse this time of year. Definitely. The invisible load is the planning and the follow through behind the task, right? We all know that the holidays take the normal day to day and they amplify it because of, like you mentioned, the hosting, the events, the gifts, the travel, and creating systems to help lighten that load while also considering maybe adding on some support during this season can make all the difference for busy families. Yeah. And one thing I found interesting is you found that the mental load is not exactly shared equally. Tell me more about that and why does it seem so difficult to change that? Well, I think that's part of it, but what families tell us even more often is even with two really involved partners, there just aren't enough hours in the day and with families living farther from extended family, they really need to build their own village. Um, I think the bigger problem that we're hearing is this permission gap of feeling like we can't ask for help because Doing so would be almost admitting a personal failing, and I am on a mission to change that and normalize being able to ask for the help that we need and that we deserve. Speaking of being on that mission, I understand, you know, at one point you even decided to just make a spreadsheet and just spell it all out, you know, how much extra work you're doing at home. Describe for me a little bit more about what going through the process of that revealed to you and revealed to your family. Yeah. Making the invisible visible is the name of the game. So six years ago I sat down Took an inventory of everything I was doing to manage my household, and it added up to 23 hours a week on top of my full-time job. And, you know, of course, some of those tasks were the obvious ones, like the grocery shopping and the laundry and the meal prep, but also those invisible ones, like making sure the teachers have gifts for the holidays and that you're signed up for the volunteer opportunity and kids are on the roster for sports. And so it wasn't until I was able to see it all. And then create more sustainable solutions around delegation and implementing additional support like, you know, a part-time house manager that I was able to cut through that holiday noise and really create space to finally enjoy the holidays. And that's what it should be all about, right? I mean, it seems like it's difficult sometimes to do that, but give us sort of a practical reset for the holidays. You know, for those of us who are already feeling overwhelmed, what are some of the things, some of the steps we can take this week to begin to lighten that load? Okay. Let's get practical. Do a holiday brain dump is what I would recommend. Decide which buckets you want things in. So what things do I really want to keep that are important to me? What can I share, right? What can I delegate and what can I drop, right? If I can get radically honest about what aligns with my joy and my values around the holidays, I give myself the permission to drop the things that I don't have bandwidth for. And then ask for help around the things that I want to keep and share and that really matter. Yeah. And so this idea, though, of asking for help versus ownership, too. I mean, there's a difference there. There's a really big difference. I think it's not just about delegation. It's about feeling the permission to say, I am in a season of life where I just need more help and it's okay. It's okay in our society and culture to just say, I'm at my, I'm at my ceiling and I need more support. You know, what I find interesting, though, is we have so much more technology than we ever have that should be helping us out, right? You can order your groceries online. You've got all these apps. You've got AI. So why does it feel like, despite that, we're more stressed instead of less stressed? Well, I think, I mean, you hit it, which is sometimes more. Doesn't always mean things are easier for us to manage, right? So we work with clients all the time who are cobbling it together. Like you mentioned, right? They're using that meal delivery app there. They have a dog walker for this. They have cleaners and a babysitter. And what we've realized is the ownership is spread too thin. And the AI app, right? Yeah. They can order your groceries. They can create the laundry schedule, but what they can't do is cook you I'm going to make you dinner, fold that laundry, and sew. Um, a lot of that is still really human, um, that requires a human touch and actual people pitching in and being a part of that village. Excellent points. I've learned a lot. This, I'm going to put a lot of this into action here over the weeks ahead, especially Kelly. Thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Thanks for having me. And for more information about Kelly Hubble and Sage House, just look for this story on our website, fox5atlanta.com. You can go to the Good Day tab and click on today's viewer information link.