How to Set Your Team Up for January Success (Without the Chaos)
It's January 2nd. You sit down at your desk, open your laptop, and... panic sets in.
Your inbox is overflowing. Your team seems scattered and disoriented. Everyone's asking about Q1 priorities, and you're thinking: "I really regret not planning this in December."
Sound familiar?
Every year, I see leaders (myself included, historically) hit the same wall. We get to December exhausted, tell ourselves "I'll deal with it in January," and then spend the first three weeks of the new year just trying to get our bearings. By which time, we're already behind on those Q1 goals we're supposed to be smashing.
But here's the thing: it doesn't have to be this way.
Listen to the episode here and get our podsheet here.
Why January Is Always Such a Disaster
Let's be honest about what's really happening:
Everyone comes back at different times. Some people return on the 2nd, others worked through Christmas, some don't come back until mid-January. There's no collective energy.
We've all forgotten what we were working on. You look at your notes from mid-December and think, "What does 'urgent - speak to Dave about the thing' even mean?"
There's misalignment everywhere. What senior leadership thinks is a priority rarely matches what the team thinks is a priority.
Nobody was thinking strategically in December. Everyone was just trying to get to the end of the year, not thinking about how to set up the next one.
And honestly? By mid-December, most teams are exhausted. The idea of doing more work to plan for January feels impossible.
The Counterintuitive Truth
Here's what I've learned: Taking time in December to plan for January actually gives you MORE energy, not less.
When you go into the holidays knowing everything is sorted, you're not vaguely anxious about all the stuff you didn't do. You can actually switch off. And when you come back? You're energized, clear, and ready to hit the ground running.
I'm talking about just 3-4 hours total, spread over a couple of weeks in December. That's it.
When I've done this well with my team, we sit down in December, figure out the first couple of months, who's focusing on what, whose priorities are what, how they all link together. Then we come back in January and we're like: "Right, here's what we're doing. Here's why we're doing it. Let's go."
No three-week orientation period. No chaos. Just clarity.
Three Strategies to Transform Your January
Strategy 1: The December Download
This is about getting everything out of your head and your team's heads before the break.
Here's what normally happens: you get to mid-December, everyone rushes to finish things, and then you all just stop. All the context, all the thinking, all the "we need to remember to do this in January" lives in people's heads. Then you come back and half of it's forgotten.
The December Download is a brain dump session where you document three things:
What are we finishing before the break? Be realistic. Not a wish list of 20 things - what can genuinely get done in the next two weeks?
What are we explicitly NOT finishing before the break? This is crucial. It gives people permission to let things go rather than frantically burning out before the holidays. Naming what you're not doing is just as important as naming what you are doing.
What are the first three things we need to tackle in January? For each one, write out: Why is it a priority? Who's responsible? What's the outcome? What information or decisions do we need?
How to do this:
Run a 60-minute session with your team (don't do this alone - you'll miss things and they won't have ownership)
Can be in-person or remote, but everyone contributes
Document it in a shared space everyone can access
This also surfaces any misalignment NOW rather than in January when everyone's already running in different directions
The benefit? It clears everyone's mental load before the break. You're not going into the holidays with work stuff rattling around in your brain alongside the Brussels sprouts stress.
Strategy 2: The January Energy Map
This is about understanding how your team's energy is actually going to flow in January and planning accordingly.
I'll be honest - this is something I've gotten wrong for years. I love the start of the new year. New goals, new habits, new stationery! I assume everyone's going to bounce back energized and ready to sprint.
But that's not realistic. People come back and their energy is all over the place. Some feel excited for a fresh start. Others are mentally still on holiday. Some are dreading being back or had a really draining break.
Here's how the January Energy Map works:
Map out the first three weeks of January and categorize everything into three buckets:
Week 1: Low to Medium Energy
People are settling back in, remembering passwords, getting oriented
Schedule: team check-ins, catching up on what happened while people were off, organizing systems and files, low-stakes planning conversations
Week 2: Building Momentum
Start having more strategic conversations
Medium energy tasks that move things forward
Week 3: Hitting Your Stride
High energy, high impact work
Big decisions, strategic thinking, complex problem-solving
How to implement this:
Sit down with your January calendar
Look at the first three weeks
Categorize everything into high, medium, or low energy requirements
Rearrange so week one is mostly low-medium energy tasks
Share this plan with your team and ask for their input
This shows your team that you care about their wellbeing, not just the work that needs to get done. And when someone comes to you on January 3rd wanting to make a big strategic decision, you can say: "That's definitely important, but let's do that in week two when we're all a bit sharper."
Strategy 3: The January Intention Ritual
This one's different because it's less about planning and more about mindset.
We all know about New Year's resolutions. "I'm going to go to the gym five times a week. I'm going to read 50 books." And by January 15th... well, we all know how that goes.
These resolutions are often surface-level. They're about doing things without really connecting to WHY or who you want to be.
The alternative? Setting intentions.
An intention is different from a goal:
Goal: "I want to deliver this project by March"
Intention: "I want to show up as a leader who creates psychological safety for my team"
It's about how you want to BE rather than what you want to DO.
The January Intention Ritual involves reflecting on three questions:
1. What kind of leader do I want to be in the new year? Not generic phrases like "I want to be a good leader." Be specific. For me a few years ago, it was: "I want to be a leader who makes space for difficult conversations rather than avoiding them."
2. What do I need to let go of from last year to make space for this intention? We try to add new ways of working without letting go of old patterns. For my intention around difficult conversations, I needed to let go of my pattern of over-scheduling myself so I actually had time for those conversations.
3. What's one small practice can I implement in January to live this intention? Key word: SMALL. For me, it was: schedule one conversation I've been avoiding every week in January. Not 50. One per week. Doable. Sustainable.
How to implement this:
Block out an hour before the end of December to reflect on these three questions
Write down your intentions and identify your small practices
Optionally, have a version of this conversation with your team: What kind of team do we want to be in the new year?
Document it and leave it somewhere visible on your desk for January
I love doing this in December rather than January because you go into the break holding those intentions. They percolate while you rest, and when you come back, they already feel more integrated into who you are as a leader.
The Bottom Line
I know what some of you are thinking: "I'm already exhausted. December's crazy. I can't add one more thing."
I get it. Truly.
But here's the thing: these strategies will give you energy rather than taking it away.
The alternative is going into January chaotic, scrambling, and exhausted. But with these strategies, you can close out December feeling like: "You know what? I've had a hard year where I've learned so much, the team has done incredible transformation work, AND I'm on top of what's happening in the first month of next year."
You don't have to implement all three. Pick one that feels most relevant for your team or for you as a leader. Block out the time and do it properly.
When you come back in January, you're going to feel refreshed, clear, and ready to go.
And that feeling? It's absolutely worth a few hours in December.
