Psyching Yourself Up for the Final Push

December is here—and that means we have less than a month left to finish up our projects for 2024. How are you feeling about that? Are you stressed out? If you find yourself psyching yourself up for the final push, you are in good company. 

It doesn’t have to be that way, though! Yes, you’re juggling your end-of-year work deadlines with various holiday-related commitments (such as social events, shopping, decorating, travel) as well as your usual day-to-day obligations. However, I’m sure you’ve had that many balls in the air before and managed them just fine. The emotional weight of the holiday season does make this time of year a bit more challenging than usual for many, but if you take things one step at time, you can totally do this!

Work Your Priorities

Good things happen when you get your priorities straight. 

Remember when you made your New Year’s resolutions last January? When you did your mid-year check-in around June or July? When you added new commitments—and fulfilled outstanding ones—throughout the year?

Every time you do one of those activities, you are building and revising your list of priorities. You figure out what are the most important tasks you need to be working on, and you focus on them first. Now that we’re in the final four or so weeks of the year, this is just another occasion for you to revisit your priorities list. The strategies that helped you manage it at other times of the year are the same ones that will work for you now.

Start by figuring out what on your list absolutely must be completed by year’s end. Some of these priorities might be influenced by other people (e.g., your team needs to complete the next phase of a project) or by the calendar (e.g., anything that’s particular to the winter holiday season definitely can’t wait until April). 

Be ruthless when deciding what goes in your “must” category.

After all, you cannot do everything.

At the same time, create a “like to” category for all the things that don’t quite qualify for inclusion on the “must” list but are still pretty important. Creating two lists is staggeringly helpful because it narrows the scope – instead of one list with 24 things on it, it becomes two lists with six items that truly need to get done before the end of the year. That helps bring clarity and focus to what you work on each day of the month. Your “like to” list also helps if find yourself with unexpected open time in your schedule; you’re your backup activities or projects are ready to go so you can slot them in right away.

Let Go of Perfection

Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.

We all want to do our best work. But sometimes the drive to “do our best” grows out of control and becomes an obsession to “do it perfectly.” It’s great to set the bar high, and sometimes perfection should be the goal. (For example, if you’re in charge of balancing the books for your organization, you better be sure that all expenses and dividends are fully accounted for—and that the numbers all add up exactly.) But too often the search for perfection prevents us from completing our task. 

One of my friends told me that when she was in graduate school and working on her dissertation—a pretty intense document that’s intended to be the culmination of several years of research and writing—and she was struggling to complete it, her advisor told her, “There are two kinds of dissertations: perfect and done. Aim for done.” That’s a piece of advice we all could take to heart, I think. It doesn’t mean to do a crummy job or to let things slide. It just means to get things to a point where they meet expectations and fulfill the goal—then finish them so you can move on to the next project.

Most of the time, if you get too caught up in the pursuit of perfection, your other priorities can get delayed. But if this happens during an especially busy time when you are up against many tight deadlines, you’ll find yourself incredibly stressed out—and very likely you will struggle to get anything done at all. 

Don’t Try to Do It All

Confidence comes from cutting yourself some slack. 

This goes hand in hand with the quest for perfection. Just as you need to learn when to say, “This is good enough,” sometimes you have to recognize that you cannot do it all and you need to learn to say, “This is as much as I can do.” No matter how organized, competent, and disciplined you are, there are only so many hours in each day. And as far as we known, scientists haven’t successful cloned humans yet—so there’s only one of you around to get all your stuff done. 

You might think that being an eager go-getter is the surefire path to promotion and long-term success, but you’d be wrong. Being enthusiastic and proactive is great, but moving at constant breakneck speed will surely end in a spectacular crash. You need to know when to slow down, take a breath, and lighten your load.

When you have a full plate, it’s okay to tell people you can’t take on new commitments if doing so will compromise your ability to deliver your current projects on time and to expectations. It’s also okay to delegate to your employees—heck, that’s actually part of your job as a manager! 

On the surface, delegation might feel like passing the buck, but that’s the totally wrong way to think about it. It’s really a vital management strategy that frees up your time and energy for other projects, ensures the quality and timely completion of a project that contributes to the organization’s goal, and develops your employees skills and competencies. It’s a win–win for everyone involved!

No doubt you’re accomplished and ambitious. And I know you want to be a great leader. But remember that leadership isn’t having hands-on involvement in every single thing. Rather, it’s partly about being able to manage a project to fruition without doing everything yourself—and giving yourself permission to let other people handle some things.

Take Care of Yourself

Keep taking time for yourself until you are you again.

You know how during the safety briefing flight attendants tell everyone, “Put your own oxygen mask on first before assisting others”? They do that because if you aren’t able to breathe, you won’t be able to help anyone at all—including yourself.

Every year, I hear from an astonishing number of people who are feeling burned out by the time December rolls around. They feel so stretched thin and exhausted that they don’t have anything left in the tank for the final push. Does that describe you, too?

Remember, if you wear yourself out so much that you aren’t able to tackle your to-do list, you won’t be of much use to your team, your boss, your friends—or even yourself. So set aside some time to relax, do some hobbies, and just focus on yourself for a bit. By taking care of your mind, spirit, and body, you’ll be in much better shape to tackle your various commitments. 

Final Thoughts

I suspect you’ve heard some of these ideas before. In fact, many of them probably strike you as “common sense.” Yet even though they’re familiar, most leaders fail to use them all. I think it’s because too often we get caught up in work and social patterns that leave us feeling overwhelmed. The final month of a year is a great chunk of time to practice disrupting those patterns so we can achieve better results. If you can find ways to improve even during the busy end-of-year sprint, you’ll be better prepared to tackle your commitments all year long!

If you have any tried-and-true strategies for getting through the final month of the year while balancing your various obligations (and not losing your mind!), please share them in the comments below!