When the days get incrementally shorter—I start to notice the earlier darkness with great dismay by the end of July—it is tempting to bypass autumn and start looking ahead to January when we can put a tough year behind us already. Or, if we’ve had a great year, we mourn the end approaching and may not finish the year as strong as we began it. The year has a lot of life in it yet; a full quarter! Don’t throw up your hands and submit to all the holiday hype that would have us rushing from jack-o-lanterns and Michael Jackson’s Thriller to New Year’s confetti and Auld Lang Syne.
You have at least two solid months before you have to really buckle up and think about the holidays, and that’s really only if you go very big on them. If you are a mild-mannered holiday celebrator like me, and most minimalists are pretty tame about the holidays, you can take most of November off too. For me, November only means a turkey because my boyfriend and family insist. December may or may not see a tree decorated chez Huxley, dependent on how well-behaved I think my cat can be.
Squeeze every inch of productivity out of September and October that you can. Making a push into late November would be even better. Create an “areas of focus” list to make clear the things you feel are most important in your life, typically about 10-20 areas (family, home, health, finances, career, church, service club, hobby, etc.). These usually have one or more current projects associated with them. Write down the projects for each area of focus and get clear on the very next, itty bitty action you could take to achieve completion, striving toward a clear vision of what “finished” looks and feels like.
It is important to always identify the next, very smallest action you could take. Your brain won’t fight you so much about looking up a potential client’s Linked In profile, but it will put up resistance to creating a sales pitch to that client with a Power Point presentation and completed budget. It won’t fight you on “find the labeler and make sure it has batteries and label tape,” but it will resist, “create a new file system with freshly labeled folders.” Little actions are like snowballs—as they roll along and accumulate, they become completed projects.
Health should always be an area of focus, and you may or may not have projects associated with it, but September through December are tricky months. Most of us need to pay a little extra attention to good health habits so that we don’t give in to pressure to overdrink, overeat and skip the gym. Too many late nights used to mean too many nights falling into bed without flossing my teeth or washing my face. If you can limit your indulgences from the trick-or treats to the New Year’s champagne, you will begin 2027 ahead of the game with energy and creativity, not way behind with the same old dry January, a diet and bootcamp.
From your areas of focus projects list, identify the three projects that, if you finished them, would make the year feel like a total win. Give those prime time and attention and let the rest simmer. Perhaps pick one financial goal, one career goal and one home goal. Just to be clear, focusing on these three projects doesn’t mean you won’t be there for your kids or partner or the maintenance of daily life; of course, you will still be doing all the things. You will just be giving any extra time and energy to the three specific projects.
Resist jumping ahead to the holidays by looking at Pinterest or perusing cook books too early. If the family is chomping at the bit, maybe let them take the lead this year with decorations and meal planning. Or make it a minimalist holiday year. We will talk about ways to make holiday planning both more minimalist/turn key and more