Hello and welcome to the Aligned Achiever podcast. I’m your host, Siobhan Barnes, and this week we’re talking about how to plan for the busiest quarter of the year.

That’s q4 of 2024. Now, from my experience, q4 is one of the busiest periods of the year, no matter whether you’re based in the northern hemisphere, like I am here in Hong Kong, or if you’re based in the southern hemisphere, oftentimes we can find that it’s a more social time of year. We’ve got things like mid autumn festival here in Hong Kong. We have Thanksgiving in the US, we have Christmas and a whole myriad of other celebrations that can tend to fall towards the end of the year.

And what that means is that this social time and this expectation as well around work and extra socializing with clients can bring with it a bit of a challenge to balance all of the things that are needed to do to close out the year strong, as well as, you know, socialize and, you know, see everybody and do all the fun, festive things.

So I thought that in this month of September, I would come to you with a bit of information, a bit of strategy as to how to plan for this upcoming quarter.

Now I know we’re in September, and officially, the next quarter doesn’t happen until October, but I know that once you enter what I call the busy months, September, October, November, December, things get really busy. In fact, a friend of mine just texted me to say that in Marks and Spencer here in Hong Kong, Christmas cards are already out and ready to go, and so this silly season is about to be upon us. So what most people do is they don’t think about this, right? Most of us are busy. We’re just getting through the day. But for me personally, with the way the school calendar year is structured here in Hong Kong.

I know that q4 is one of those busiest years, busiest quarters of the year, also for my children. We follow the British curriculum where my kids go to school. And what that means is that the first term is super long. It actually runs from August till December, with a one week break in the middle, and all the sports you know, majority of all of that is happening. And so weekends are also very full. And so for me, off the back of covid, in the past couple of years, have really learned like, how confronting and challenging q4 has been.

And so I want to support you today and know that this is something that I am doing for myself so that we can slide into q4 feeling excited, feeling supported, feeling present, to actually enjoy all of the things that we have on our plates, and to avoid what most people do, which is just freaking out, saying yes to everything and wondering how to handle everything, and then, you know, getting sick, or, not being able to attend events, because it’s all too much.

So how do we do this the right way? How do we get on top of our calendars ahead of time? Well, I’m a big proponent of planning.

My dad is an engineer, and he would always say to me as a kid growing up that failure to plan is a plan to fail, and I like to have a loose plan, a loose structure, a loose idea of what’s important within the quarter. And for me personally, I find that that gives me a sense of freedom. It’s a structure within which to play, to prioritize what’s most important and to get what I can done.

Now, if you are like me, and you have children, of course, things can, you know, can go out the window. Kids can get sick. You know, things can happen. There’s more events at school than you’ve planned for, or at work, you might suddenly find that there’s a lot more happening, and there’s a lot more social stuff happening. You know, that’s fine, but if we have a structure that we can adhere to and at least control what’s within our control. With the information we have now, we’ll be in a much better position to know what to say yes to and what to say no to, and that’s actually one of the biggest challenges that I find, in particular for the final quarter of the year, is that we want to say yes to everything, and what we end up doing is over committing and not being able to do everything, and becoming really prep, flustered, really annoyed, and, you know, maybe even burning out in the process.

And I don’t want you to get to December when you have some time off feeling really burnt out, really spent. I really want to support you to enjoy this final quarter, to be present and to, you know, slide into the holidays, whatever you know, however much time you’re taking off to really be present, to rejuvenate and look after yourself, and not spend the time in bed because you’re feeling sick and tired. So where do we begin?

Well, the first thing that we do is we actually make sure that we go back to the bigger picture and identify, What season are you in?

I’ve spoken about seasons at length on the podcast, and I believe there were three seasons that we cycle through in our careers.

Number one, we go through a period of needing some more work life integration. We’re actually bouncing back from burnout, having a bit of spaciousness, a bit more time to rest, to recover, to focus on our health and our well being, that is a priority. That’s season number one.

Season number two is when you’re the opposite, and you’re in a season of growth, and you’re willing to put in the extra hours. You’ve got more deadlines at work, maybe you’re going for that promotion, so you’re allocating more of your time towards growing your career.

That’s the second season, and the third season is when you’re completely reinventing yourself.

I often find that you know, at times, we will go through periods in our life where we have a little bit of a maybe a quarter life crisis, a midlife crisis. Maybe it’s a big birthday. Maybe it’s a big milestone with kids ages or marriage, you know, number of years married or not being married for you know, that can kind of set off this idea for a reinvention, where we want to change careers, change industries, start a business, go back to corporate, or whatever it might be.

So those three seasons, I think, are really helpful to check back in with before you go into this final quarter looking at what it is that you need to do. Now, if you want to go into greater depth and hear more about those three seasons, make sure you go and check out Episode 21 of the podcast. But for now, just know that those are the three seasons, and that’s really your first step to identify what is the priority for you this season?

Is it spending time to do the groundwork for your reinvention, where you’re thinking about change, maybe you know that next year you don’t want to be in your existing role. Or, you know, you want to bring a little bit more of this, like, boss energy to your role. Or maybe you’re, you know, turning a certain age, and you’re like, oh, I don’t want to hold myself back anymore. Like, whatever it might be. What does that mean for you? Then for this final quarter, like, what do you need to prioritize? What are the projects? What are the goals that are important to you?

Similarly, if you’re in a season of growth, and you know that you’re going to be building your career, and perhaps there’s going to be a lot of deadlines, you know, getting really clear on that, and saying, Okay, that is my priority. And equally, if you’re, you know, ready to really chill out, think about work life balance, like knowing, okay, that is my priority. So once you’ve got that and you know what season you’re in, then you can reverse engineer what it is that you really want to do in the next 90 days.

So step number two is to actually think ahead to 31st, of December, 2024 or maybe it’s your last day of work, which, for some people, will be perhaps the 13th of December, or the 20th of December, if you’re finishing up on a Friday, whatever date feels right and true for you, and I want you to think about by that date, come the end of 2024

What do you want to have accomplished?

What are the goals? What are the projects? What are the things that you want to have achieved? And I’ll be honest, I’ve just literally spent some time focusing on this for myself. So I’ll give you some examples for me.

For me, I am working on a consultant course. It’s called the Emotional Culture Deck, and that’s really about bringing a specific tool to work with corporates to think about their emotional culture. So for me, I want to get us to a certain point in that program come December. You know, I want to have done a few, a few workshops. I want to have held a few meetups. I want to have gotten to a certain point by that time, my course runs until March of next year. So I still have more to complete in the next in the next quarter of 2025, but for me, come December, I’m very clear where I want to be with that particular program. That’s an example of like work.

In my health, I know that I want to add mobility and a certain like change in my nutrition by that time, and I want that to be part of my routine, non negotiable, kind of like how I’ve been working on going to the gym and having that become, you know, a non negotiable part of my routine. So I’m just adding to that. That’s my goal, for it to be easy and effortless and just something that I do on the regular come December.

Equally, I am also thinking about my family and, you know, my relationship, and what kind of rituals I want to instil by the end of the year, so that we are enjoying q4 together and we’re actually having a really good time. That’s really, really important. So those are just some examples from my life, but I invite you to think about for you come December, where do you want to be? What is important to you? Like, what are the certain things that you said the start of 2024 that you wanted to achieve, that you want to make sure that you get done and you get dusted by the time the end of the year rolls around?

Now there are many different areas of your life that you can think about your goals. You can think about your work. You can think about personal life. You can think about love, relationships, health, mental, well, being, hobbies, adventure, travel. There’s a lot of different buckets that you can consider here, but I’ll let you decide where you want to be in that.

And what I will say with these goals is I would advise you to think about maybe not overwhelming yourself here. So obviously, get everything out on a piece of paper, do your brain dump, and then think about what are maybe your top three essentials that you want to get done? What is it that is most important to you? And if you achieve five, you achieve six. Great. But what are the top three that you are going to feel like amazing to achieve by the end of 2024 Okay, so once you’ve got that, you’ve got clarity on what actually matters.

The third step is to actually think about something a little bit more nebulous, which is, how do you want to feel during q4 of 2024? How do you want to show up in the day to day?

And the reason why I ask this is that if we don’t intentionally think about how we want to feel, we’re going to be driven by just going through the motions getting things done. It’s going to be busy. It’s going to be hectic, or at least that’s been my experience for the past two years of Q fours, it’s felt very, very full and a little bit intense sometimes, and I found myself like being on high alert. But this year for q4 my word for the year that the quarter, sorry, is presence. And within that, whatever spaciousness I can feel. I want to be present. I want to be spacious.

So my kids do a lot of activities. My weekends, my daughter plays rugby on a Friday night and a Sunday. She plays netball on a Saturday morning, training Saturday afternoon. There’s games. My two boys, my sons, they, one of them is swimming on a Saturday. The other two also play rugby on a Sunday. So my husband and I often divide and conquering to make sure they all get to their activities.

Now, within that, I know that it’s busy, right? I know that there’s a fixed constraint. I know that my Fridays, Saturday nights, I’m not really going to be super social, because I know that I’ve got my kids events on, and that’s a priority for me. I want to be there. I want to be present. I want to be you know? I don’t want to be hungover. I want to be there, right? And so for me, if I’m going to be present and I want to feel spacious, I’m going to be hesitant to put social engagements or stress myself out by trying to say yes to something on a Friday or a Saturday night, when I know that that’s just not the season of that for me.

Of course, when that all dies down come the end of November, early December, maybe I’ll ramp up the social engagements. But just you know, knowing that I want to feel spacious, knowing that I want to feel present, that already is a guiding force for me to say yes, yes, I will say yes to meeting somebody, or no, I’m not going to and that’s really helpful, because, as I said, that’s the biggest challenge.

When we go into q4 we’re overloading our plates. We’re saying yes to too many things. And look, that’s just personally Right? Like, that’s just my personal life, but I know, and my experience working with clients is that when our weekends are full and we have a lot to do on the weekends that can really impact our work. So I’m starting with an example of personal life, because we want to make sure we’re rested. We want to make sure we’re nourished. We want to make sure that our weekends are spent on the things that matter to us, so that, you know, then we have the energy to show up to work Monday to Friday, or whatever your hours might be.

So think about how do you want to feel in in this q4, 2024, and then once you’ve established that, then you want to get into the nitty gritty.

How are you going to break down those goals that you said you wanted to achieve by the end of the year? How are you going to break that down which month makes sense for you?

So how I like to do this is, I like to look at my quarter. I like to block out those times when I know I’m going to be busy. I know that my kids have a half term in the middle of October. I know that I’m delivering a workshop a certain week, and I need to have more time and space to prep. I know that I’ve got group coaching. I know that I’m launching something so, you know, I can work around that so I’m not too busy. So again, like, this is about getting really tangible and nitty gritty to break down that goal and see when you want to put it into the diary.

And now we’re doing this in September. You have the spaciousness to actually get on the front foot and, like, plan your quarter so that you’re not in it come, like, middle of November, stressing and trying to get it all done.

Okay, so those are the four steps I’ve gone through.

Number one, identify the season that you’re in.

Number two, think about what you want to have achieved by the end of the year. What maximum three, massive goals or projects do you want to have achieved?

Number three, think about how you want to feel in the process of that.

And number four, think about, okay, well, how am I going to strategically do this and schedule this into my calendar?

And those are really the four steps, really simple steps to thinking about how to plan for the busiest quarter of the year in q4 now that’s the bigger picture.

And looking at it as a whole, one of the things I also invite you to do is to think about as you get into the silly season, the busy season with work, what is it that you can proactively prioritize or incorporate into your day to day to make sure that you are rejuvenating and looking after yourself. What do I mean by that?

I mean what are some of the things that you can enforce or implement to support your well being?

We’re not here to, you know, work ourselves to the bone and like, scrimp on our sleep, scrimp on our energy so that we can get things done. It’s not like we rest when we’re done. We need to rest so that we can be fueled to do our best work. And this is something that I think I know I’ve put my hand up here to say, I’ve made this mistake, but I’ve seen my clients do it the same.

We overwork and we push ourselves, and we’re so tired that actually our efficiency rate and our efficacy when we’re sitting down at our desks, it’s not productive if we’re tired. So how can you look after yourself, and this, this requires you knowing yourself, right?

Some people are morning people, some people are night time people, getting to know yourself and what’s possible for me. I know I’m an evening person, but with kids in their routine, I can’t actually do that. So I’ve kind of been trying to train myself to be more of a morning person and get my stuff done then, or at least, like, do what I can in the morning, and that’s going to the gym, etc.

And so for you, what does that look like? What does your general routine going to look like? Are you going to, you know, exercise twice a week. Are you going to try and get to bed earlier three times a week? Are you going to, you know, get some bodywork once a month? Are you going to pick up that meditation practice, whatever it might be, have a think about how you can nourish and support yourself.

And if you’re telling me that you don’t have time and that this is not a priority, I hear you. You’ve got a lot on your plate. And you might hear me say this and go, Oh, I don’t have time for this. Or That’s all very well and good in a perfect world, I hear you, I really do and at the same time, I work with far too many clients who have burnt themselves out and had to claw their way back to optimal health and energy and vitality. And I just want to be a little voice to say, Hey, don’t ignore this. Don’t put this to the wayside.

You matter. Your energy, your well being. It matters.

And you know, if you don’t have your full energy and you’re not feeling good, this can really spiral. Right? Our mental health can suffer, our emotional well being, our resilience, etc.

So start small. Maybe it’s waking going to bed five minutes earlier than you usually would. Maybe it’s ordering that Nutrition Kitchen or that healthy meal delivery service so you don’t have to do meal prep. I mean, really, whatever works for you and allows you to support your well being is a huge, huge win.

And remember, as I said at the start, it’s for this season. You don’t have to do this forever. You can just try this out for q4 support yourself, and then iterate again and listen to this podcast episode again as we enter into the new year, although I am sure I will record something new and special for you for the new year, but that’s what I wanted to share with you.

This is how we can get on the front foot for q4 2024 and speaking of which one of my projects, I am doing a annual check in with my audience.

And would actually really love to hear from you.

I want to hear from you and know which season you’re in in your career. Are you in the work life integration? Are you in the growth season? Are you in the reinvention season?

I actually would love to have a conversation with you to understand what your biggest challenges are, for you at the moment, in each of these different seasons, and in exchange for having 20 minutes of your time to ask you a few questions and better understand your struggles so that I can create more content and programs to support you.

I would love to offer you 20 minutes of free coaching to say a huge thank you.

And you know, say a huge thank you, and please scrap that. And as a thank you for. And as a thank you in exchange for your time, offer 20 minutes of free coaching where we can workshop your best next steps and what to do to support yourself in this season, specifically in the context of this final quarter of the year.

So if that’s something you would be open to, I’ll pop a link to how to book in that call with me over in the show notes and I’ll keep my calendar open for a finite period, which you’ll be able to see on the page.

But in advance, a huge thank you. If you’re willing to take the time. I absolutely love connecting and hearing more from you. The calls are completely anonymous. I just use the information to support me and my business, and would be really grateful for your time.

So as I said, Come on over, book in a time with me, and I’ll just ask you a bunch of questions, and in exchange, offer you that coaching to say a huge thank you.

So thank you so much for tuning in. Let’s make 2024, this final quarter strong. Let’s make it whatever it is that you want to be.

For me, I want it to be spacious. I want to be present, and I hope that you get to achieve whatever you are looking to achieve in this final push for the year, and in a way that supports you.

So thank you so much for tuning in, and please remember you are here for a reason beyond merely hustling, grinding and merely surviving, you matter you.