How to Create a Thanksgiving Dinner Timeline

Are you wondering how to create a Thanksgiving Dinner timeline?  

Do you need help preparing your timeline so you can keep track of dishes…and your cooking schedule?

In this post, you’ll find several tips to help you prepare a convenient and easy-to-follow Thanksgiving dinner timeline.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to prepare a timeline just for Thanksgiving dinner.

These tips can be helpful in preparing a timeline for any dinner or meal where you’re doing a lot of chopping, slicing, dicing, simmering, baking, or stewing.

If you want more help planning your party or event, be sure to check out my event planning eBook. Learn more by clicking here.

Plan dinner time.

Setting a specific dinnertime makes it easier to create a timeline.

Why? Well, you have a definite finish or ending point.

You know exactly when (give or a take a few minutes) all the various dishes and foods need to be prepared and finished.

That being said, at what time would you like to have dinner?

Early in the afternoon at 1 P.M., or perhaps later in day in the early evening around 6 P.M.?

Be sure to select your dinnertime with care.

Keep in mind, the earlier the dinner, the earlier in the day you will need to begin your preparations.

Organize your timeline by dish preparation.

When it comes to creating your timeline, it can be helpful to plot out the individual dishes you’ll be preparing.

Not only will you keep track of the time, but you’ll also keep track of the preparation progress for individual dishes.

It’s quite helpful to have all your dishes and recipes selected in advance.

This way, have specific time references to work with, and can plot out your schedule accordingly.

How should you set up your timeline?

Grab a sheet of paper and write out a timeline on the left hand side. Be sure to end with your selected dinnertime.

Then, list out each of your dishes on a single row above the timeline.

Factor in cooling, rising, and resting time.

A dish is done when it comes out of the oven or off the burner, right? This isn’t necessarily so.

Different dishes require different preparation methods.

Some foods require time to rise or marinate in advance, while others need to cool once they’ve come out of a hot oven.

The same holds true for the actual preparation of dishes, such as cutting, chopping, peeling, soaking, and measuring.

Keeping this in mind, take a second look at your recipes.

Make sure you’ve factored in enough time in your timeline for these requirements.

Which dishes need additional preparation time? Which dishes require additional resting or cooling time?

Schedule timeline reviews.

If you want to stay on schedule with your meal preparations, it is imperative you regularly check your progress.

A helpful way to do this is to plan regular check-ins over the course of the day.

These check-ins will be times when you check the progress of every single dish.

Go ahead and pencil in several check-ins times into your timeline over the course of the day.

For example, you could check your timeline at the top of every hour or half-hour or set a timer to go off every 45 minutes or so.

When the check-in arrives, take a moment to evaluate the status of each of your dishes.

Select an Easy way to display your timeline.

Things will be quite busy in the kitchen, so you’ll want to have a timeline that is easy to read and that you won’t mind getting dirty or messy.

Case in point: this may not be the time to create a timeline using your brand new tablet or smart phone!

What are some timeline display options?

You could write out your timeline on a large piece of butcher’s paper and tape it to the back of a door or on a wall.

You could temporarily use office supplies and mount a large white or dry-erase board on the wall.

Likewise, you could print out or create a timeline with pen and paper on a sheet of paper, and use magnets to hold up your timeline on your refrigerator’s door.

Make sure you keep a few pens, pencils, or dry-erase markers handy in order to make quick notes and updates as the day progresses.

If you want help planning your party or event, be sure to check out my event planning eBook. Learn more by clicking here!

How about you? Which of these tips will you keep in the front of your mind as you prepare Thanksgiving dinner? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

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About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

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