I always enjoy this end of the year period. In Australia, it’s summer time so it’s school holidays, which I think are always nostalgic even if you’re no longer in school. It’s also Christmas and the New Year, so people come together more frequently than normal. The cricket’s started, the tennis is about to begin, and fake Christmas trees go up in many houses. It’s a glorious time.

I also find myself reflecting on the year at this time. This week feels like a bubble, where most people aren’t working and even if you are it doesn’t really feel like a time to start anything new: if anything, it feels like a time to only finish things to come into the new year with a blank slate. I like to look back at what went well for me this year and what I struggled with: what changes did I make to my processes and what am I thinking about enacting next year? This is a time where things go into stasis a bit, so it’s the perfect time to find new processes and prepare for the year ahead.

Something I like to do at this time of year is actually enact new habits. I think a lot of people wait until Jan 1 to do things like that: new year, new me and so on. I think this is a bit of a trap though, because there’s nothing really special about Jan 1 and also Jan 1 is a terrible day to start new habits because chances are you’re tired from staying up and maybe a little hangover, not great conditions for starting the year on a good foot. Instead, I like to trial things in this week. This lets you get a sense of how much time things take, and also gives you momentum heading into the new year. If you do something every day starting now, you have already established a streak by Jan 1. This means you know how to fit it into your plans for the rest of the year, or you also have time to change things if you need. If your goal is to go to the gym more, you can try the machines now while they’re quiet and figure out a routine. If your goal is to read more, you can experiment with where that best fits into your schedule. It is lower pressure than a New Year’s Resolution, which means you can figure everything out ahead of being a bit stricter in the new year. So don’t wait until Jan 1 – start now!

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