How I make room for December<\/strong><\/h4>\nOver the past several years, I\u2019ve instinctively fallen into a new rhythm during the final weeks of December: a state of mind that extends from my professional life to my life outside of work.<\/p>\n
The visual evidence appears in many places: my calendar, my to-do lists, and even my refrigerator.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve come to think of this time as my \u201cclear the decks\u201d period. Or, more bluntly, \u201cit\u2019s enough month.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a period of intentional avoidance\u2014at times, even stubborn refusal\u2014to add anything new to my life unless it is absolutely essential.<\/p>\n
Some of this mentality is rooted in my personal circumstances. Our family typically decamps to Berlin over the holidays. For the weeks leading up to our departure, I ruthlessly meal plan in order to use up any perishables, and I avoid buying any groceries that won\u2019t be consumed prior to our departure. Everything else is frozen, awaiting a clear purpose in January.<\/p>\n
The process involves a combination of culinary creativity, new recipes, and substitution experiments. My family\u2019s annoyance at random food shortages is ameliorated by a robust supply of Christmas cookies, which seem to appear without warning.<\/p>\n
Beyond the kitchen, I triage my open tasks into two categories: finish now, or deliberately defer until 2026. The deferral isn\u2019t a last resort the day before my vacation, but rather starts early in the month, allowing me, my clients, and my collaborators to plan.<\/p>\n
Like my fridge cleanout and freezer stockup, I don\u2019t allow myself to add anything but the most essential and time-sensitive tasks to my to-do list during this period. Everything else goes on a running list that I keep on the first page of my 2026 planner.<\/p>\n
(And in many cases, these tasks no longer seem to be so essential once the new year begins.)<\/p>\n
While most people associate decluttering and clearing space with the month of January and resolutions for the New Year, I find this work to be essential to my December planning.<\/p>\n
Creating space in your organization<\/strong><\/p>\nThis isn’t just personal productivity\u2014it’s a leadership practice with cascading effects.<\/p>\n
When you model boundary-setting and strategic deferral, you give your team permission to do the same.<\/p>\n
When you tell a client in mid-December that you\u2019ll tackle a project in January, you\u2019re not creating a barrier\u2014you\u2019re ensuring they get your best work, not your depleted attention.<\/p>\n
You demonstrate to your stakeholders that sustainable pace is a professional value, not a luxury.<\/p>\n
Final thoughts<\/strong><\/h4>\nAs you head into these final weeks of the year, when so much is being added to your plate\u2014both figuratively and literally\u2014take some time to create space and clear away the nonessentials.<\/p>\n
In some cases, it might involve completing a series of small but nagging tasks. In other cases, you may need to recognize that a project won\u2019t make much progress before the new year, and should simply be deferred until then.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t wait until your last day at your desk: start today. Starting this process a week or two before the holidays offers a psychologically meaningful difference\u2014akin to using up the milk rather than letting it spoil in the fridge while you\u2019re out of town.<\/p>\n
Do it for yourself, your colleagues, collaborators, clients, and stakeholders. Your January self\u2014and your team\u2014will thank you. And you might actually be able to enjoy December.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
P.S. This advice holds for any other time of year that may be \u201ccrunch time\u201d in your sector\u2014for example, a recurring annual conference or a grant deadline.<\/p>\n
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Copyright 2023 Intellerate Consulting. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
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December is when most organizations try to add abundance to an already full plate. The result? Burnout and bottlenecks. In my latest newsletter, I make the case for strategic space-making as essential leadership practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capacity-building","category-leadership","category-taking-action"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100760"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100765,"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100760\/revisions\/100765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intellerate.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}