Your Q4 Game Plan

The last three months of the year, often called Q4, can fill up fast. Year-end deadlines, gatherings, family plans and a growing list of things we somehow decided need to happen before December 31.

Before your calendar fills up, make a game plan.

Start with a little balcony time. Imagine stepping up onto a balcony and looking down at your life. You can see the whole picture instead of being caught in the day-to-day: what’s already on your calendar, what’s coming and where do you want to make room?

What fuels me? What drains me? What do I actually want Q4 to feel like?

Use those answers to build your game plan.

Invite in

Make room for the things that give you energy or that you look forward to.

• The walk with a friend where you come home feeling better than when you left.

• A lunch with the people you actually want to catch up with.

• Finishing one meaningful project so it doesn’t follow you into January.

Do it differently

Some things you still want to enjoy could use a few adjustments.

• Host dinner, but ask everyone to bring something. You don’t have to be the caterer.

• Go to the party, but leave while you are still having fun.

• Visit family, but stay two nights instead of four.

Leave off the list

Notice what you keep saying yes to out of habit.

• The cookie exchange when you don’t even like baking.

• Saying “we should get together before the end of the year” to every person you see.

• Treating every unfinished task as something that must happen by December 31.

Your first move: invite one thing in, do one thing differently and leave one thing off. Make Q4 work for you.

💙 Collins, Jill, Susan