There’s something undeniably exciting about the start of a new year and the brimming possibilities of a (nearly) blank planner. Yet for many organizational leaders, January’s energy and ambition can eventually lead to paralysis.
This is the paradox of overwhelming potential: we seize upon the momentum of the new year to generate new ideas and fresh perspectives, but eventually we struggle to manage the quantity and scope of our ambitions.
The result? inaction, burnout, or regression to the status quo.
In this week’s newsletter, I’ll offer some strategies to harness the potential of the new year while avoiding paralysis.
Dream
Transformative, impactful leadership requires creativity, vision, and mental space to generate new ideas.
As I wrote in my last newsletter, December is ideally a time for organizational leaders to make space: to winnow down to-do lists, wrap up lingering tasks, and assiduously avoid non-essential activities. In doing so, you can enjoy a reasonably fresh start in January.
So by all means, take the time to dream of the best possible future for yourself and your organization. Whether on your own or with your team, leverage the excitement of the new year to brainstorm possibilities. (Changing your location for an hour or a day can help.)
When dreaming turns to drowning
Indeed, a few days ago I heeded my own advice and decamped to one of my favorite cafes, pen and paper in hand, and began to brainstorm a long list of hopes, goals, and plans for a long-term initiative I launched this past year.
It was, at least initially, an exciting—even cathartic—process. My list included tasks I had long wanted to accomplish, but ran out of time for in 2025. It included several “do-overs”—i.e., rethinking processes that had never really worked as I had hoped, and which I wanted to redesign from the ground up. There were contacts to renew, new ideas to pilot, and our long-term sustainability to consider. I also made a list of books to read, webinars to watch, newsletters to catch up on.
My list continued to grow until I suddenly realized that my mood had soured. I wasn’t excited. I was overwhelmed.
Reality set in as I reviewed all that I had written down: a long list of interconnected tasks and projects—where and how do I begin? Furthermore, this work wasn’t simply time-intensive, but mentally taxing: all required a significant amount of planning and organization—which I love to do, but not for eight hours a day.
Rather than feel motivated to take action, I felt frozen.
Delegate
When I looked at my dream list, an internal voice kept saying: This is impossible. There’s no way you can accomplish all this right now.
In the past, I might have ignored this concern and pushed ahead. This time, however, I decided to recast and respond.
You’re absolutely right! There’s no way that I can accomplish all this alone.
In other words, I had to be honest with myself: If I want to do even a fraction of these things, I’ll need to recruit others to help.
So my planning shifted to thinking about those volunteers with the time, expertise, bandwidth, and motivation to step in.
In more concrete terms, my to-do list shifted from tasks to connections. My focus turned to reaching out to specific volunteers to set up 1:1 meetings to discuss their involvement and willingness to take on a larger leadership role. This same shift—from tasks to capacity-building—is what distinguishes leaders who scale impact from those who plateau.
Defer
You’re already good at time management—schedules, timelines, and deadlines.
But “defer” is something different. It’s an intentional decision to take something off the table until a later date. My deferral practice typically involves writing down the task or project on a sticky note, and then placing the note in my planner several months into the future. (The beauty of the sticky note is that it can be moved many, many times.)
And then, once I’ve written down the task, I move on to other, more pressing things.
In other words, deferring goes far beyond traditional time management strategies. To defer isn’t simply to postpone, but rather to decide strategically what you will not carry in your working memory.
And beyond that, you’re giving yourself permission not just to postpone, but to stop thinking about it entirely—no guilt, no mental overload.
Final thoughts
The three D’s—Dream, Delegate, Defer—aren’t just tactics for managing January. They’re a repeatable process for converting ambitious vision into achievable action, whether you’re planning a new year, launching a strategic initiative, or finding yourself paralyzed by possibility.
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