Woah there, December. Take it Easy.
Hello, chaos buddies! Let's all hold hands and gracelessly stumble into the new year, shall we?
What a year, amirite?
I know we still have four weeks left before the proverbial fresh page that is January 1st, but this week I’m feeling real big End-of-Year Energy.
And I love it.
In Gretchen Rubin terminology, I’m a finisher more than an opener. I get intense satisfaction out of using the last cup of rice in a bag, or the last page in a journal. I like checking things off lists and using up leftovers.
Sure, fresh starts are fun—but mostly because they mean I tied up the loose ends that came before.
Yesterday, a friend said that December just feels like a month of frantic prep for January: Wrap up unfinished projects, charge through the holidays, and then pull out a fresh bullet journal and do it all over again.
Normally I love planning for the new year, but this time around I’ve found myself hesitating. Letting myself get wrapped up in admin and minutiae, losing myself in projects and email, and never quite getting around to using those planning blocks I scheduled in.
Maybe it’s because 2023 was wildly disruptive to my best-laid plans, so I’m wary of laying new ones.
Maybe I’ve just been in such a go-go-go mindset scrambling to catch back up after my injury that I’ve forgotten how to take time to think about the bigger picture.
(I know, I know. I wrote a whole post about how we’re not supposed to think of disruptions as something we need to “catch up” after, and instead think of them as “a chance to reset from scratch.” Taking my own advice is an ongoing practice.)
Or maybe it’s a simple logistical problem: I’m on deadline to finish a client’s book and that’s taking up all my deep work blocks. By the time I get through my client work for the day, my brain’s deep focus ability has been spent.
Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to wrapping up this draft and digging out the Post-It notes, pens, P&L statements, highlighters, and bullet journal to have a mini-retreat.
A few people have asked if I have a specific end-of-year planning format I do each year. The short answer is “I make it up each time,” but in truth I do have a few specific steps I follow.
I just don’t have them written down, despite my best intentions.
This year, I’ll be sure to document what I do and share it here, in case you need inspiration to hold your own year-end planning session.
Do you have any year-end rituals you follow?
And now a quick, random smattering of thoughts…
What I’m Reading
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor — an excellent recommendation from the amazing Kate Pickford at 20Books Vegas this year. (I’ll try to remember to link to her talk when it goes live.)
Atomic Habits by James Clear — a reread for the virtual book club my mom and sister and I are doing. We’re not very far into it, but it’s been a great refresher about being more mindful about unconscious habits.
Let the Dead Bury the Dead by Allison Epstein — Allison’s Substack
has long been one of my favorite obsessions, and her newest book was truly excellent.Naked in Death by J.D. Robb — a new sci-fi series idea has been brewing in my mind, so I’m adding any police procedural/thriller books with a sci-fi bent to my reading list. So far I’m enjoying my first J.D. Robb read1, but if you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
Cool Stuff
The delightful Kriti Khare of Armed with a Book included From Chaos to Creativity in her list of the 5 books on creativity that shaped her over the years. I’m absolutely floored by the honor, especially given the company my own little book is keeping! Definitely check that list out for some great reading suggestions.
For You
If you’re also looking forward to the fresh start of January 1st and want a bit of guidance, I’ve put all my creative productivity books, workbooks, and courses on sale. Head here and use the code FRESHSTART to save 20%.
That includes the mini-guide, How to Write During the Holidays, which includes both PDF and audio so you can listen on the go.
Mostly enjoying, I should say.
Grabby, bossy Alpha love interests are not my cup of tea, though it stems from a trope I love and personally embody: “strong, prickly woman who thinks she has to do it all alone finds equally strong (and smokin’ hot) man who will take care of her without holding her back.”
Roarke is just too handsy and pushy, though. Using his master key to force his way into Dallas’s apartment? Um, no. Red flags. Lt. Eve Dallas should have punched him way more than once by this point in the book. Dude needs to back off, is all I’m saying.
Someday maybe I’ll write a post about this trope, which will definitely include a study of how Dallas and Roarke’s relationship compares to Jane Rizzoli’s relationship with Gabriel Dean in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles series.
Rizzoli is also a strong, prickly woman homicide detective who just wants to solve murders, and Dean is also a smokin’ hot strong man who just wants to love and protect her. But instead of grabbing her arm and hauling her around, breaking into her apartment, and undermining her investigations he respects her personal space, professional boundaries, and “nos”.
I really love their relationship in the book series, because it depicts two independent people who genuinely respect each other. You can have an Alpha Male partner without him having to turn you into a damsel in distress — that’s way hotter than controlling dudes, IMO.
Maybe Dallas and Roarke’s relationship evens out in later books, but the start of it is giving me ick vibes.