We’ve shared some of the ways we use Dropbox, but that can change depending on the time of year. Those‘New Year, New Me’ progress pics might have fallen off, or you have a solid year of good habits to look back on! We all know that this time of year is a little wild. When Michael Bublé and Mariah start singing, you are up against the clock to get holiday ready, so here are some tips on how to use Dropbox to make your prep easy!
Presents:
With Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule and the new year, there are probably gifts you want to share with friends and family. And if your love language is gift giving, you might have a mighty list of people and potential gifts - so here is what I do. Using Paper, I keep track of who I need to get a gift for, gift ideas I have, and even what colour they are wrapped in - I don’t want any Christmas morning mix ups.
Setting each gift as a to-do means I can set dates to include delivery times, and if you are working as a team, you can share this list with someone else to divide and conquer. Ultimately, ticking off a to-do feels great. This might seem like overkill but 5 minutes of list making saves a lot of stress, and it’s not the season for stressing.
Recipes:
This is absolutely a time of year for eating some classics. Stuffing. Every kind of potato. Potentially dry meat. Sweet or savoury, there is some serious competition about holiday food in my house - and everyone has their strengths. So, we share recipes to make sure we can all enjoy a feast, even if we’re not at the same table.
Using a shared folder, my whole family collaborates on recipes. Some of us scan in tried and true recipe pages, other use Paper docs to add more detailed personal updates, and we all share photos of our accomplishments. Instagram might be great for sharing brunch but flexing your skills on family feels great. Last year, when we couldn’t all gather around one table, it was great to have my grandparents recipes. We’ll be keeping this folder up to date and it makes a family cookbook!
Without sharing the family secrets, it looks a little like this:
Photos:
You might have seen how Sheena uses Dropbox to share her family photos, with the whole extended family, and we love that. Read about it here, and start your family photo album now too.
Also, if you don’t feel like sending out a ton of physical paper cards - you can use Dropbox to share your holiday card this year. Save a tree, save a stamp and save a trip to the post office!
Not to date myself here but I have a school reunion this year while folks are home for the holidays, and since we were one of the first graduating classes with camera phones(but before we knew our angles), there are some truly embarrassing snaps to share to be able to fully appreciate the glow ups.
Planning:
Plane tickets, train tickets, road maps, schedules, work, social events - there is a LOT going on at this time of year. A detailed folder makes it easy for you to have access on your mobile devices, so you don’t have to carry your computer around. Booking and planning can all be done at yourwork from home set up,(which is probably very nice if you took our advice here) and then can be accessed with just a few clicks when you’re on the road. No more slapping all your pockets for a print out, or getting lost and showing up late to any events.
These are just a few things we do to make sure we are having very happy holidays - and not stressing over the small stuff.
What tips do you have to make the holidays roll smoothly?
It's been a huge help in planning my holiday trip to see my family. I've been able to keep track of all of my to-do's and all the important docs I need to have at hand during travel.
Throughout the year, I try to keep an eye out for possible gifts that I think friends and family might like for Christmas. I have a paper document in my Dropbox just for these ideas, and whenever I see a link, tweet, advert etc. that I think would make a great gift, I copy it to my paper document to look at later in the year. That way, whenever November comes around, I've lots of ideas for possible gifts and there is no rush at Christmas buying last minute gifts. I already have all my gifts purchased and wrapped for this Christmas!
Community ManagerDropbox Staff
