Like many, today is the final day before I return to work after the holidays. There is a mixture of anticipation and excitement of the potential of the next twelve months, and an underlying feeling of unease, which makes me a little uncomfortable. 

At the beginning of the holidays, it took longer than I expected to properly decompress. My mind stayed busy, running through lists even though there was nowhere I needed to be and nothing I needed to do. It was only after about a week that I truly began to relax. 

Now that I have reached a place of rest, the thought of going from 0-100 overnight and switching straight back into work mode feels more than a little challenging. Time away has been a reminder of how important rest and space are and how easily work can expand if boundaries are not actively maintained.

Today is calm and as unstructured as I wish to make it, but I know that tomorrow will bring unscheduled meetings, calls and competing priorities as everyone hits the ground running. I genuinely enjoy what I do and know how fortunate I am to work from home, but I am realistic about the intensity that often comes with the start of a new quarter. I also know that, despite my best intentions, the nature of my job means that much of what will demand my attention over the next few weeks cannot be predicted or planned for in advance.

So instead of allowing myself to become too anxious, I am focusing on what I can control. This morning is being spent preparing as much as possible for the week ahead, reviewing my calendar, making lists and getting as organised as possible, and hopefully this will soften the impact as soon as I log back in tomorrow morning. 

To keep myself motivated, I am setting myself a new productivity challenge for January. After more than a decade in this role, I have a good sense of how long different tasks usually take, which makes it easier to work with time rather than against it. Once the daily tasks are done, I will give myself a fixed, focused period of time (I’m going to start with 90 minutes) and see how much extra I can realistically complete within it. Once that time is up I will stop, rather than pushing on out of habit, and deliberately reward myself by doing something just for me. That might be reading, going for a walk, or spending time working towards personal goals, reinforcing the idea that productivity does not have to come at the expense of rest or balance. Granted, it won’t aways be possible with the inevitable last-minute “we need this NOW NOW NOW” things that will appear out of nowhere, but I’m hoping that the more ahead I am, the easier it will be to deal with it.

January, along with the No Spend January 2026 Challenge, will be about developing a routine that supports this intention. I want to build a structure that allows me to do my job effectively, while still protecting time for rest and life outside of work. For now, that starts with today, accepting what I cannot control, and taking ownership of the things I can.

Wish me luck!