Ditch the year end stress

Feeling stressed because of all the messages about it being November and that you only have so many days to meet your goals before the end of the year magically comes along and judges you?

I’m not a fan of the pressure other people place on us and even less of a fan when we do it to ourselves around the year ending. The idea that time is running out when really 31 December is only one day later than 30 December and in some cultures it’s not even year end.

If you are then here are 5 things to do instead of worrying about time running out:

1. Prepare your business for you to have some time off. This could be letting clients know that you aren’t going to be available for a certain period of time. If you feel the need it could include scheduling emails or social media. Though I personally love that I’m not getting emails over this time and I’m only on social media for my favourite rescue dog accounts. Even if you aren’t celebrating if your ideal audience is then it can be a great opportunity to have a break and not feel behind.

2. Do a review of your prices and if you are putting them up letting people know so they can decide if they want to buy from you now. Quite a few businesses put their prices up at year-end. If you feel a bit weird about putting up your prices, then year-end can feel like less pressure and more just a regular review that you do.

3. Review October. It’s the end of October. Instead of trying to do a big review at year-end, do a review of October and set up a regular time in your calendar to do this each month. Monthly can feel so much easier than looking at a whole year. Look at what your numbers are telling you for the month of October. Have a think about what went well in October, what could have gone better. A great question to ask is what do I want to start doing, what do I want to stop doing, what do I want to continue doing.

4. Plan your November. What projects are you going to work on this month — remembering to take into account anything else you need to do this month like Thanksgiving. Not enough time now? Then schedule time at the end of the month to do this for December (and January if you are taking time off in December so you can ease into January, feeling ahead).

5. Plan Black Friday purchases. Decide ahead of time what if anything you want to buy during the Black Friday sales rather than getting sucked in by all the deals that will appear in your inbox. I have a planner I buy every Black Friday and there is some software I’m interested in. If your web hosting is coming up for renewal then this can be a great time to get a good deal.

I’ll also be setting aside some quite time to do a review of my year. It’ll be summer here in Australia and everything just goes a bit slower. So for me it does feel like a natural time to review and reflect. If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere then the holidays can feel hectic rather calming. So this may not be the best time for you to do this!

Just remember to do what works for you and don’t listen to people trying to tell you that time is running out (unless of course you find that highly motivating!)