One of the busiest seasons is once again upon us and it's the time of year most clients, even the fairly organised ones, become frazzled in trying to organise all the work, shopping, parties and more shopping needed to be done in what seems to be the least amount of time. There really is no need to panic because there are still 13 shopping days left before the jolly old man arrives.

The choice is yours, you can choose either to stress yourself out, going from store to store, bracing the crowd and long lines, overworked and disagreeable sales clerks or you can choose to be like the serene happy people who shop online early to avoid the afore-mentioned stress.

If you are spending the holidays on the Island and you started your shopping on the Internet today, you could virtually be finished shopping in less than an hour, your purchases gift-wrapped, delivered directly to your recipient or to your doorstep within a week to ten days. If you will be in North America for the holidays, your packages can be gift wrapped and waiting for you within three to five days.

With just a click of your mouse, you can easily join the ranks of millions of resourceful on-line shoppers, hence, alleviating becoming one of those stressed out people, inundated with work, deadlines to meet before year-end and still not a clue.

For office colleagues, use your discretion carefully when planning to buy gifts. Take a look at the general office procedures on gift-giving to avoid any embarrassment or inadvertently creating any resentment. Most North American offices do not go to any great out-of-pocket expense for gifts at Christmas time. If your office collectively feels there is a need to participate in some form of celebration, here are some easy stress-free tips you can easily organise: The name in a hat pull is quite easy, but be sure to set a price limit on gift spending (minimum and maximum).

Everyone brings in a dish to share and it can be best planned for the last day of work -- since little work is likely to get done anyway with all the excitement and holiday cheer.

Have a gathering and instead of gifts, collect donations for the less fortunate or a favourite charity.

Gather together as an office group at a place of worship -- if your office has more than ten people, contact a church to make special arrangements.

Arrange for a party organiser to come in and organise your celebrations.

Invite musicians or schoolchildren down to the office to sing Christmas carols -- school children are wonderful and usually excited at the invitation.

You could choose not to participate in the season, and that is OK too, as long as you do not mind being looked upon as the office Grinch. The choice is entirely up to you and if you are comfortable with your decision, that is that you do not feel any undue pressure or stress, do not put yourself out, the choice is yours.

If you do choose to shop on line, there are some tips to assist you: Be sure to check the online site's return policy Use a shopping `bot' site which in actual fact is a virtual robot making your on-line shopping easier by weeding through websites for individual items -- check out these bot sites: www.mysimon.com and www.botspot.com and sign up for their email alerts for further savings Create a wishlist either at a favourite site such as www.amazon.com or from a wish list site such as www.wishclick.com. At the wishclick site, click on the gift goddess to assist with specialised gift suggestions.

Try www.milepoint.com where you can use your frequent flyer miles for various discounts on your purchases.

There are sites that gives a percentage of your purchase price to listed charities one site to view for this is www.igive.com The drawback with shopping at above-mentioned sites is that most of them do not deliver locally but you can locally contact Zip Express or Swift Direct to set up an international forwarding address.

Locally there are several on-line websites such as: www.triminghams.com www.bookmart.bm -- the books in stock are at regular US prices and items not in stock can be delivered within a week for an additional charge My clients and friends are raving about www.bermudagrocers.bm grocery on-line store and their delivery service www.cafelatte.bm offers a good quality catering service, coffee and various espresso machines.

Most online shoppers are happy people and, this year, you too can reduce the holiday's stress by choosing to click the mouse instead of being a `walk-foot' shopper. It is one of the best ways to organise your deadlines and workload and still accomplish your gift buying responsibilities.

Cindy Swan is a Professional Organiser with over 20 years of office administrative managerial experience. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organisers. Her column appears in the Business section twice a month.