Keep calm, have a blast

It's event-tsunami season. Here's how to host, party, dress up, and show up, without draining your social battery

- By Riddhi Doshi

It's begun. The invites are flowing in for six art openings, four cultural festivals, 200 mega online sales, 1 office party, 49 wedding events, two Diwali taash parties, and who know how many PDRs booked at restaurants. Brace for endless hours of dressing up, getting stuck in traffic, socialising with yet another bunch of cool people, and returning home later than you thought you would.

Who wouldn't be overwhelmed? The festive months are hard enough on extroverts. Introverts have it even worse. So, plan early to stay sane through it all. We're tackling every problem.

Help, there's too much to do!

Which party to RSVP for, whom to take as a Plus One, what to wear, which road has less traffic, which wine to gift, which anecdote to share, which snack in the tray is the healthiest, whom to avoid, when to exit, how much to spend, and how to keep the phone charged through it all. Our brains are primed to weigh every little decision. But eventually, fatigue sets in. We make poorer choices, we regret what we said or did on the way back home, we remember it forever.

Endless decision-making brings on not only mental exhaustion but also impulsivity, physical tiredness, brain fog, procrastination and complete avoidance, says psychotherapist Shreya Aras. Don't let it conquer you. Set aside time early in the week or month, to curate what's on your calendar. Identify the most important events and clear the appointments for the day after, so there's space to recuperate. If it's possible, cluster your events by geography: Brunch with a friend, a mall crawl with your NRI cousin, and dinner with the old client, all within the same pin code.